"I like to cross the room. I put myself in the middle of the lawn and I thought about it: how can we say that we are a confined place? Bathilde Lorenzetti, daughter of Jacky, president and owner of Racing 92, smiles. Admittedly, Paris-La Défense Arena is a closed rugby stadium (and a performance hall), but its dimensions, 156 m long, 160 m wide, its ceiling height (42 m) allow for planning.
The vice-president of the enclosure, wanted by her father and inaugurated on October 16, 2017, has filed a file with the prefects of Hauts-de-Seine and Ile-de-France and the Ministry of Sports detailing the measures for the reopening of the Arena. With the promise that, if this plan is accepted, only 14,000 spectators will be able to return for the Top 14 resumption, scheduled for September 5, with the Racing 92 matches. Even if the club's management asked the League national team to play their first game of the season away from home.
Pick-up from the metro
To guarantee security (the Vigipirate plan is still in force) while avoiding physical palpation, the Arena will set up security gantries. Different corridors will allow access to the enclosure upon arrival on the esplanade. Wearing a mask will be compulsory in the queues.
If the health authorities request it, it will also set up a temperature control. A specific device is also provided at the exit to avoid in particular that spectators converge at the same time on the metro. The public will thus exit zone by zone.
A capacity of 13,486 spectators
"We are lucky to have a lot of space," we note at the Arena. The enclosure was thus divided into six rooms, three on each floor. Each zone corresponds to a color (yellow, purple and red) indicated on the tickets (sold only online), with a limited number of spectators each time (between 1,500 and 3,381 people).
Each zone is autonomous (impossible to circulate or to come into contact with people from one to the other), with its own entrances and exits, its own smoking area, its refreshment bars (click & collect will be favored to avoid the queues) and its toilets. Only one seat in two will be occupied. The rows will be offset to allow a distance of at least one meter.
"Everything is done so that the spectator keeps a customer experience as close as possible to normal room operation," says one. Only 13,486 supporters per match can be accommodated (out of a capacity of 40,000). A gauge which allows however to reach financial balance.
Guarantee a healthy space
"The enclosure will look 100% new" before the public enters the room, highlights the recovery plan. During its construction, from an ecological perspective, Paris-La Défense Arena had planned an extremely developed air clearance and extraction system. "An indoor air treatment and a total renewal every hour," specifies management. This means that microbes cannot settle. "
The leaders changed the filters and improved filtration. "We will be really safe," says one. The investment to get up to standards is heavy. It is also a question of survival for the room, inaugurated on October 16, 2017 and completely stopped since March 7.
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The document is currently being studied by the prefectures. The position of the Defense Council of July 18 will be decisive in fixing the gauges (5,000 for the moment), from mid-August. "We need an answer by the end of the month," we advance to the Arena, because we need to organize and market the tickets. "
