The return to normalcy took four months. An autumn and early winter during which professional clubs were able to forget the restrictions linked to Covid-19 and welcome their spectators. This period of happiness is coming to an end: faced with the spread of the Omicron variant, the government has decided to limit the number of people in sports arenas from January 3.
A maximum capacity of 2,000 people has been set for closed rooms, which particularly concerns “BHV” (basketball, handball and volleyball). The number is increased to 5,000 for outdoor stadiums, which primarily affects rugby – football with an economy based largely on television rights.
For handball, the men’s championship is on hiatus until February 5 due to the Euro and it is the women’s clubs which, for the time being, are the only ones concerned. If the president of the Women’s League, Nodjialem Myaro, recognizes that these measures come to slow down a “Dynamic that had been found”, she is delighted that the executive did not go in camera: “ The gauge is less of a problem for us. We will continue to adapt. “
The gauge will only really affect the clubs of Metz and Brest, which have an average attendance of over 2,000 spectators. During these three weeks of restrictions, the Messines will play four times at home, twice in the European Cup and twice in the league. “In the Champions League, these are matches with 4,000 spectators, Explain their president, Thierry Weizman. It will halve our revenue. “ The manager of the club with twenty-three French league titles remains positive: “We must let January pass, bow down and hope that things will normalize in February. “
“150,000 euros in less revenue”
On the volleyball side, the new deal is more difficult to pass. Especially in Tours, where the men’s team attracts the biggest crowd in Ligue A: 2,850 of the 3,100 seats in the Robert-Grenon hall are on average occupied on match days. “We lose a third of the public. The ticketing offsets are currently at zero. We come out of eighteen months with nothing. After four months, we go back in there. It becomes very complicated ”, laments Pascal Foussard, manager of the club.
If the average attendance is only 1,084 spectators in League A and 704 in League A women, the restrictions on attendance will have consequences on the hospitality part, a central element of the clubs economic model, also underlines the President of the National Volleyball League, Yves Bouget. “They sold services to their partners that they could not afford. An example, Tours was to receive Modena on January 12 in the Champions League. It was the game of the year, sold out, he says. It’s catastrophic. “
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