Can PSG really carry out the threat of leaving the Parc des Princes?
Paris, September 2032. While the flying cars had left the Paris ring road to make way for pedestrians, on what now looked like the vegetated New York High Line, onlookers walking there suddenly turned their eyes to a building. strange and threatening concrete. , the spear raised to the sky, lies the Porte d’Auteuil, which nature eventually devours little by little. Nostalgia, a father telling his children that at that time, this place still existed place to be in Paris, home of Paris Saint-Germain, today moved far, far, away, to the Arena Karl-Olive in Poissy.
By (barely) straining our imaginations, it is in substance this bleak future that Paris Saint-Germain spoke in a press release, published on Saturday, following the refusal of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to sell the Parc des Princes to PSG. and Qatar shareholder QSI, the latest episode in the com war started in November between the two clans. “PSG and the Parc des Princes are part of Paris’ history and heritage. Everyone loses in the position taken by the mayor. Paris Saint-Germain is now forced to look for alternative options to relocate the club (…). This was not the result the club, nor its supporters, hoped for. His tone was serious and his sentence seemed irrevocable. Yes, PSG will indeed leave the Parc des Princes in the near future.
The candidates came out of the woods
It was enough to trigger the fantasy machine. After this new spat, the new Rouge et Bleu stadium hosting candidates came out of the woods to roll out the red carpet for Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. While Karl Olive, the mayor of Poissy, which has hosted PSG’s new training centre, published a visual of what PSG’s new home ground could represent on his land, the mayor of Joinville-le-Pont also made an application form on the France Bleu Paris airwave, evoking Bois de Vincennes as a future residence. On the other end, Stéphane Pottier, founder of Venue Advisory, a company specializing in stadium and arena management, is sick of imagining such a scenario.
“We can always imagine everything and it’s not impossible for PSG to move, it’s just that it will require a huge investment and a lot of time. We are talking about projects that are at least 8 or 10 years old, note the people collaborating on projects of new football stadiums in Lille, Bordeaux or Nice. I really don’t see them migrating to the Bois de Vincennes one day, it just doesn’t make sense. Later, there may be applications from neighboring communities who own land and want to take advantage of this opportunity. However there are strong ties to Qatar, QSI and PSG as an institution in Paris and west of Paris. »
“PSG is the Park! “, proclaims Collective Ultras Paris
For now, proponents are divided on the issue. If some, such as the Collectif Ultras Paris or the Parisii block, unfurled the banner “Our history is written here. Neither in Saint-Denis, nor in Poissy “in front of Taman this weekend, are strongly opposed to PSG’s relocation, others are more hesitant. Some have recently mentioned to our colleagues from Paris the case of Arsenal, Tottenham, Juventus or Atlético de Madrid, who eventually abandoned their historic stadiums to build bigger and/or more modern home turf.
“But all these clubs remain in their historic districts,” replied Stéphane Pottier. If the Saint-Cloud racecourse, not far from Taman, is cited among the likely venues to welcome PSG’s very hypothetical new home, another lies a few kilometers away. Can we seriously imagine Paris fans agreeing to go to Saint-Denis, to the Stade de France, one of the projects mentioned in the departure event from the Gardens, to see their team play? Not to mention that next door to the Dionysian stables, certainly huge but soulless, the Parc des Princes next door looks like a mythical place that, in fact, no one wants to move into.
Prices are hard to predict
It’s just here, to stay there and do the necessary expansion and modernization work, PSG wants to be the owner of the place. What Stephane Pottier understands perfectly. “It’s like when you rent an apartment or a house, you are not ready to make the same investment there as when you owned it. What is in Paris Saint-Germain’s interest to invest 300, 400 or 500 million in a property that doesn’t belong to them? It doesn’t make sense economically. »
However, after the first (ridiculous, let’s say) offer of up to 40 million euros, PSG defied an unacceptable ending from the City of Paris, who estimate, it was more than 350 million euros. How much is it actually worth? Difficult to judge because this type of transaction is uncommon. According to another study by domain services cited by Team, we are talking about an amount of 200 million euros which can then become the benchmark for any future transaction. Unless Paris City Hall sticks to the hard line it has set in recent days, it will gain nothing from PSG’s departure on the outskirts of town.
“It might take a little more creativity than a simple sell, thought the Venture Advisory founder. The mayor slightly opened the door by calling for the extension of the domain occupation treaty. But there may be another legal tool that gives PSG and QSI pseudo-ownership of the Parc des Princes. I remain confident that everyone will recover around the table. The city of Paris is not interested in letting PSG leave the Park and PSG itself is not interested in leaving its stadium. . As deputy mayor of Paris David Belliard assured him at the RMC Monday morning, “we are in a game of liars poker”. It remains to be seen which of NAK or Anne Hidalgo has the best game.
