After the Bercy room renamed Accor Arena in 2015, another major Parisian facility is about to receive a corporate name. The new Arena under construction at Porte de La Chapelle, in the north of the capital, will indeed be called “Adidas – La Chapelle district”, except for the ultimate change. The decision was taken on Thursday, May 12, during the council of the mixed economy company which already operates the Accor Arena in Bercy and the Bataclan, announced the elected Communists of Paris, very hostile to this measure.
During the council, two elected members of the council – the communist Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj and the ecologist Alice Coffin – voted against the project. But the other participants, members of the municipal council or representatives of the American minority shareholder AEG, declared themselves in favor of this “naming”, and the deliberation was therefore adopted. It must still be validated by the Paris Council, probably in June or July.
For supporters of the project, its interest is clear. Adidas is expected to pay around 2.8 million euros for its name to be associated with this new equipment, intended to host certain competitions of the Olympic Games scheduled for Paris in 2024. The German sporting goods manufacturer will thus contribute significantly to the financial equilibrium of the future hall. However, this practice of naming bristles a whole section of the left. “It pushes the logic of commodification to the point of privatizing the names of establishments belonging to the public domain”, plague Fatoumata Koné, the president of the elected ecologists of Paris.
Opponents don’t let go
Instead, opponents had long pushed for this Arena to bear the name of Alice Milliat (1884-1957), a French swimmer, hockey player and rower who was also a feminist activist and organized the first Women’s World Games in Paris in August. 1922. “The Porte de la Chapelle Arena would thus have been the first Olympic facility in history bearing the name of a woman”, emphasizes Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj.
In July 2020, a wish had been voted by the council of Paris to study the possibility of giving the name of Alice Milliat to the Arena. Since then, discussions have taken place to find a compromise. For example, the Adidas logo could have been associated exclusively with the name Arena Alice Milliat. But the German group has, it seems, refused such a solution.
Opponents do not let go. Friday, May 13, they launched a petition addressed to the mayor of Paris. “Let’s not sacrifice our values, our commitment to sport and to feminism, on the altar of a multinational! », argue the signatories, including former sports minister Marie-George Buffet and sprinter Ayodelé Ikuesan. Not sure that’s enough to change Anne Hidalgo’s mind.