The Paris Council reaffirmed this Tuesday "the belonging of the Parc des Princes to the heritage of the City", once again refusing the sale of the stadium to PSG, with which relations have been at a standstill for more than a year.
A year after Anne Hidalgo, the mayor (PS) of the capital, closed the door by announcing, in January 2023, that the Park “will not be sold”, the municipal assembly dominated by the left reinforced this position, requesting that the modernization of the sports venue “be carried out within the framework of an arrangement satisfactory to all parties but not involving its transfer”.
#ConseildeParis The Parc des Princes is not for sale, it must remain the heritage of Parisians.
pic.twitter.com/4OTvHtNNol
— Rémi Féraud (@RemiFeraud) February 6, 2024
“We have wanted from the start for PSG to stay at the Parc des Princes” but “we do not wish to cede Parisian heritage”, reiterated the deputy for sport Pierre Rabadan, recalling that the town hall had spent “four years on a project to “extension” between 2018 and 2022.
PSG, engaged until the end of 2043 in a thirty-year long lease with the town hall, owner, considers the acquisition of the stadium essential to carry out its expansion project to 60,000 seats - compared to around 48,000 seats currently.
But “the discussion stopped the day they conditioned this expansion work on a pure and simple buyout,” according to Pierre Rabadan.
Since then, the Parisian executive has “continuously asked for a return to dialogue, which we still do not have today,” admitted the former Stade Français rugby player.
“The major risk is to see PSG leave the Park”
Faced with the persistent blockage, "the major risk is to see PSG leave the Park" and that the municipality is obliged to "assume all the investment costs for an empty stadium", warned the LR mayor of the 16th arrondissement , Jérémy Redler.
By dint of “delays” and “contradictory information”, “you are once again demonstrating that you do not know how to work with your partners, to the detriment of Paris”, castigated Horizons opponent Pierre-Yves Bournazel, addressing to Anne Hidalgo.
At the beginning of January 2024, deputies Emmanuel Grégoire and Pierre Rabadan called on PSG to resume dialogue, saying they wanted to give it “guarantees” on a very long-term rental.
A standoff that causes collateral damage… 25 km away.
Several opposition elected officials from the agglomeration of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines were indeed surprised that a project to build a stadium was being studied on the natural land of a leisure center.
Especially, according to them, "it seems very likely that the project is above all a hare that the owners of the club are running to influence their negotiations with the Paris town hall", they denounced in a press release.
A missive which notably targeted Valérie Pécresse, the president (Libres) of the Ile-de-France region.
Which ended the debate on Monday, with a dig at her political opponent: “PSG must stay at Parc-des-Princes,” she declared to Le Parisien.
This is what her supporters want and what Anne Hidalgo needs to hear…”