At the end of June 2022, the Manceau football stadium will no longer be called MMArena. The MMA insurance group, headquartered in the capital of Sarthe, has decided not to extend the naming contract contracted in 2007 and which took effect four years later with the inauguration of this 25,000-strong enclosure. places, becoming the first French football stadium to take the name of a brand.
The mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll (PS), revealed the information during the budget orientation debate of his municipal council this Thursday, December 9. “MMA wanted to withdraw from the stadium. This represented aid of one million euros per year ”, he pointed out bitterly.
In fact, the insurer had undertaken to pay this sum annually for a period of ten years. At the time, the future resident club, MUC 72 (today Le Mans FC) was playing in Ligue 1 and achieving its best results. Giving his name to the stadium (built for 104 million euros) was a good publicity placement for MMA.
Compensate for losses
But the clouds quickly accumulated over the Le Mans lawn, both literally and figuratively. The football club was only in Ligue 2 when the stadium welcomed its first football fans on January 29, 2011. A year later, the one and only open-air concert, that of Johnny Hallyday, was to be canceled at the last moment due to heavy rains. In 2013, Le Mans FC was liquidated and demoted to 6e division due to huge financial losses.
Since then, the club has patiently climbed the ladder (he currently plays in the National) and gave hope to the territory … and to the historic partner who extended his contract until June 2022 to help Le Mans FC regain Ligue 2.
“It’s a magnificent infrastructure. Each year, we host at least one match of a French football team ”Yannick Hoinville, stadium manager
But MMA won’t go any further. Bad news for the city of Le Mans, which pays several million euros per year to the manager (4.1 million in 2021) in order to respect the public-private contract which requires it to compensate for losses in the event of the absence of a club. Ligue 1 in the enclosure.
Bad news also for the Le Mans Stadium concessionaire (a subsidiary of the Vinci group) which has already made a number of efforts to reduce its costs. But its director Yannnick Hoinville remains fair play: “The first thing to do is to thank MMA for its eleven years of loyalty in the context that we have known. ” Now that the decision is official, he believes “Have a free hand to canvass another partner” and is working on it now, showcasing the advantages of its arena.
“It’s a magnificent infrastructure and one of the best endowed stadiums. Each year, we host at least one match of a French football team and, in the opinion of the French football federation, our stadium is a much envied tool ”, Yannick Hoinville advances. It also highlights the dynamism of the resident club to attract spectators, like “The Christmas match organized on December 14” which will bring together at least 16,000 people for the Le Mans-Cholet meeting. The MMArena stadium will soon lose its name, but it retains a large audience.