Parc des Princes: France

The Parc des Princes (translation: Princes’ Park) is a 48,527 capacity stadium in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It is the home of football team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and was the national stadium of France until the Stade de France was built for the 1998 Football World Cup.

The current Parc des Princes, designed by architect Roger Taillibert, was opened in June 1972 and is a true football/rugby stadium with no track around the pitch. There had been two previous stadia on the site, opened 1897 and 1932, both essentially velodromes. Taillibert’s all-seater design has proven in retrospect to be well ahead of its time, requiring only cosmetic improvements to meet vastly increased comfort and safety regulations through the 1990s and early 2000s.

The rugby union club Racing Club de France played there between 1984 and 1990. Another rugby union club, Stade Français, play across the road at the Stade Jean Bouin.

The Parc des Princes hosted one of France’s greatest football achievements, the 2-0 victory over Spain in the 1984 European Championship final. It also hosted the biggest disappointment of the French national football team on November 17, 1993, when Les Bleus were beaten 1-2 by Bulgaria with a 90th minute goal by Emil Kostadinov and failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA. At club level, the Parc des Princes has been the scene of some of Paris Saint-Germain’s most memorable European Cup games, in particular a 4-1 victory over Real Madrid in 1993 in which PSG scored the qualifying goal on the very last play of the game.

Stade De Stadium: France

The Stade de France is the largest sports stadium in France with an 80,000 capacity. Instigated by France’s hosting of the last soccer World Cup of the 20th century in 1998, the role of the stadium is to be the home of France’s major sporting events in football, rugby and athletics.

Stadium Site

The structure, which was built on a site previously occupied by a derelict gasworks in the northern Paris suburb of St. Denis, was built in less than three years by a public/private sector partnership, at a cost of around £260 million ($364 million).

Construction of the stadium started at the beginning of May 1995 and was completed on November 30th 1997. At its peak, 1,500 people worked on the construction.

Design

Designed by four architects from two firms: Michel Macary and Aymeric Zublena; and Michel Regembal and Claude Costantini, the Stade de France is the biggest mobile, transformable stadium in the world. The lowest grandstand, with a capacity of 25,000 seats can be pulled back 15m (rolling on a cushion of air, and steel and Teflon rollers).

The system enables the spectator to be as close as possible to the particular event optimising visibility. The 80,000-seat arena was designed to provide perfect visibility, with its elliptical form enabling sightlines to converge.

Elliptical Roof

The roof is suspended by 18 steel pillars at a height of 45m (148.5ft) above the ground and is covered with 50,000m² of PVC. Laminated glass made with Saflex plastic interlayer was used to help build this elliptical shaped structure, adding natural light while solving acoustical, thermal and other architectural design challenges.

With a total surface of more than 6 hectares and weighing 13,000t - as much as the Eiffel Tower - the roof is suspended above the ground by 18 steel needles, the elliptical roof houses all the lighting and acoustical functions (550 projectors, 36 sound walls and 454 floodlights).

Prefabricated cable guys hold up the roof of the Stade de France. The guys connect the metal framework to the load-bearing beams. Each pre-stressed guy is made up of several dozen parallel strands. To meet the safety and strength specifications, the technology of ’separate wire anchors’ for anchoring the strands had to be modified with a steel sleeve permanently clamped on the galvanised strand by extruding it through a die.

The lightly tinted glazing of the roof allows light to pass through while sheltering the spectators. Saflex plastic interlayer was used because it is tough and resilient polyvinyl butyral (PVB).

Saflex is sandwiched between two or more panes of glass and then permanently bonded together under heat and pressure. It was conceived that only glass could open the stadium to the city, allowing the infiltration of natural light. Laminated glass made with Saflex was chosen to help achieve the aesthetic look desired while providing several important benefits. With the glass made with a translucent white interlayer in the roofing structure, light is able to shine onto the field, minimising glare and sharp contrasts between shaded and lighted zones. Laminated glass also enables uniform growth of the stadium’s grass surface, allowing all areas equal exposure to sunshine.

Athletics Track

A pitch surrounded by an athletics track distances the spectator from the football action. So at the Stade, the lowest of the three tiers of seating are retractable units that cover the track.

The Stade de France is the largest modifiable Olympic stadium in the world. It can be transformed from a soccer stadium into an Olympic-sized arena in less than a week. The retractable lower stands holds 25,000 and can be shifted 15m underneath the middle stands.
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Stade de la Meinau Stadium: France

On the face of it, the prospect of a trip to France to see Racing Club de Strasbourg take on the mighty FC Toulouse was not the most mouth-watering prospect - the two teams at the very foot of the French top division battling it out in a dour relegation struggle were unlikely to provide much entertainment. However, the chance of seeing the maverick Paraguayan goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert in action for the home side, and the lure of a trip to another country (even if it was only France!) proved to be too strong to ignore - and the fact that Strasbourg boasts a Marks and Spencer food hall had absolutely nothing to do with that decision!

Strasbourg is very easy to reach by road and rail, and sits right on the border with Germany, where it is still referred to as Straßburg on the motorway signs. The ground is well signposted from all points of entry to the town, but parking near the stadium itself is very limited. We arrived very early on matchday, and managed to get a space right in front of the ground, before walking back to the town centre for some pre-match food and drink. Alternatively, you can leave the car in one of the many park and ride areas, or the town centre car parks, and then catch one of the new trams back to the stadium.

There is plenty to do in Strasbourg itself, as you can visit the cathedral, take a boat trip on the old canals, or even go shopping should the fancy take you, but be warned - beer is remarkably expensive, over 3 pounds for less than a pint in one of the bars in the cathedral square!

We chose to walk off some of the afternoon’s excess (Kronenbourg and waffles with chocolate sauce!), and arrived back at the stadium with about half an hour to go before kick-off, expecting a bit of a crush to get it and loads of people to be milling around in the concourses, as would be the case in England or Germany. However, the French experience was totally different in every way - people were sim ply standing and chatting, and no-one seemed too bothered about the match that was about to start. (more…)

Stade Toulousain: France

Stade Toulousain, usually known as Toulouse, is a French rugby union club from the country’s rugby capital, Toulouse in Midi-Pyrenees. The club has won the European top club competition, the Heineken Cup, three times (1996, 2003 and 2005) and were losing finalists in 2004. The club has produced over 90 internationals.

The club was founded in 1890 out of the rugby section of a sports club. Its original name was Stade Olympien des Etudiants Toulousains, which roughly translates to Olympian Stade of the Toulouse Students, but it was renamed Stade Toulousain in 1907.

They play at the Stade Ernest-Wallon, with a capacity of 20,000 or at Stade de Toulouse that has a capacity of 37,000. They wear red and black.

History

The club was founded in 1890 as the “Olympian Stade of the Toulouse Students”. Under this name, the club made its first final appearance at the championship of France in 1903 in Toulouse, being defeated by Stade Français, a club which had already six titles in the short competition history before the encounter with Toulouse.

The club soon became known as Stade Toulousain. In 1909, the club made its first finals appearance under its new title, again being defeated in the final of the Ligue_Nationale_de_Rugby championship. The club lost 17 points to nil. Only three years later would the club be participating in another final, against the Metro-Racing club. After two disappointing finals, Toulouse finally got their championship, winning 8 points to 6 in front of a home crowd.

Although it would be over a decade until Toulouse claimed another championship, the 1920s were a golden era for the club. Their first final action in the 1920s was in 1921, when they were defeated USA Perpignan. Despite loosing in 21′, the side went on to win the 1922, 1923, 1924, 1926 and 1927 championships.

The following decades were relatively quiet after such a dominant era during the 1920s. Toulouse would not make it to any grand finals during the 1930s, and it would not be until the late 1940s when they would return. The club made it to the final of the 1947 championship, and claimed the premiership, beating SU Agen, 10 to 3. However, no such championships followed, the club was again relatively quiet on the championship. It was 22 years in the waiting; Toulouse made it to the final, but were defeated by the CA Begles club.

11 years later the club was again disappointed in the final, being defeated by AS Beziers in the championship game of 1980. The latter end of the decade was however, reminiscent of the 1920s sides. Toulouse claimed their first championship since 1947, defeating RC Toulon in the 1985 final. The following season saw them successfully defend their championship, defeating SU Agen in the final. Both Toulon and Agen won the following premierships but Toulouse won another championship in 1989. (more…)

Stade de stadium: France

The Stade de France (the English translation “Stadium of France” is not used) is a stadium in an inner suburb of Paris, and the national stadium of France, built for the 1998 Football World Cup. It hosted France’s greatest sporting triumph to date-the 3-0 victory over Brazil in the World Cup final on July 12, 1998.

Coordinates: 48°55′29?N, 2°21′36?E

Name

The word “France” in Stade de France does not refer to the country France, but it refers to an area, or pays, of the historical province of ile de France known as pays de France. ile-de-France was made up of several pays: pays de France, Parisis, Mantois, Hurepoix, and so on. Pays de France was the extremely fertile plain located immediately north of the city of Paris, with the city of Saint-Denis at its centre. Pays de France is now almost entirely built-up, being covered by the northern suburbs of Paris.

Pays de France is also known as the plaine de France (”plain of France”), and the name of this old pays still appears in the name of some towns in the northern suburbs of Paris, such as Roissy-en-France (which means “Roissy in the pays de France”). Thus, the name of the stadium was chosen to give it a local touch, as it is located in the plaine de France, but of course most people outside of France are not aware of this fact, and assume it is the stadium of the country France. In fact, the new national stadium of Switzerland is called Stade de Suisse in presumed homage to the Stade de France.

Residents

The Stade de France has no “respect”. loner team remains empty most of the time. Repeated attempts to convince a professional football or rugby team to move there have failed so far. Paris Saint-Germain is the only local team that has proven it could regularly draw crowds large enough for the Stade de France, but has remained at Parc des Princes under pressure from its parent company (pay-TV network Canal Plus) and the Paris city government. Given the current rugby and football climate in Paris, it is unlikely that any other team will develop a large enough fan base to make Stade de France a viable home within the next ten years. (more…)