The famous Porte de Saint-Cloud stadium (16th century) was invited to the Council of Paris. Faced with pressing requests from the president of Paris Saint-Germain to enlarge the stands, the first deputy mentioned the possibility of a very long-term rental to avoid seeing the club leave the capital.
The wish submitted by environmentalists asking the City to “categorically refuse any proposal to purchase the stadium” was however rejected.
No imminent sale
“We have not closed the door but (selling) is not our priority option”, summarized the first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire in early December, responding to the president of PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. The latter had declared in an interview: “They (the town hall) are pressuring us to leave”.
“For the ecologists, the sale of the Parc des Princes is not an option at all”, hammered the elected EELV Antoinette Guhl. “We want (…) to keep the Parisian heritage public. We refuse a Qatari enclave in Paris which would transform the Parc des Princes into a huge commercial and tourist center”, she declared, launching: “Would you be ready (…) to sell the Eiffel Tower?”.
The president of the communist group Nicolas Bonnet-Ouladj regretted for his part that the elected officials were “not at all associated with the discussions”. According to him, the communist wish aims to put the question of the evolution of the Parc des Princes “in the game of democracy”.
“A heritage like the Eiffel Tower”
“The Parc des Princes is of course the privileged place of PSG (…) but it is first and foremost a monument that has existed since 1897 in Paris (…) There were 54 Tour de France arrivals at the Parc des Princes (….) it’s not just the lair of PSG, it’s a heritage like the Eiffel Tower”, he added, specifying that he agreed “for work aimed at increasing the capacity of 48,000 to 60,000 places”.
“We give a favorable opinion on the communist wish which says that there are different hypotheses (…) The principle of the reality of life is that we do not close a door before discussing with all the parties”, estimated Emmanuel Grégoire, who however favors “the hypothesis of a long-term emphyteutic lease”.
The shareholder says “he does not want to pay hundreds of millions of euros (in investments) to upgrade the Park without becoming the owner. We say to ourselves “not everything is for sale”, as a matter of principle “, he added, wishing that the City could “support the development strategy of PSG”.