(Paris) The Parc des Princes remains the number one priority for Paris Saint-Germain, which wants to buy its historic stadium before launching major works, but the club is still coming up against the refusal to sell by the Paris town hall.
While negotiations with the City of Paris for the possible takeover of the Park are at a standstill, PSG applied on Thursday to become the buyer of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
But, according to a source inside the club, the acquisition of the Park “remains plan 1, 2, 3 and the Stade de France plan 4”, the other option being the construction of a new stadium, close to Paris (Hippodrome de Saint-Cloud), or further, towards Poissy, where the next training center is located.
PSG says it wants to undertake expansion and renovation work on the Porte de Saint-Cloud enclosure, estimated at 500 million euros ($750 million), in order to increase its capacity from 47,000 to 58 000 seats. In the eyes of the Qatari owners of the club, this work would only be possible if PSG became the buyer of the Park, but they are currently facing an end of inadmissibility from the Paris City Hall.
“We had opened the door to the possibility of selling the stadium to our club because it is true that in the economic model of the big clubs, they almost all own their stadiums”, explained Thursday on RFI the mayor of Paris , Anne Hidalgo.
But “we are in a country where the rule of law works so there are procedures. There are also prices which must be fixed and which must correspond to the good. I admit that as for the outcome of a whole process where we discussed, tried to assess what the price of the Parc des Princes could be, we were told that the club offered 38 million ($57 million )…,” she continued. A “ridiculous” offer according to the chosen one.
“I think they will not leave” from the Parc des Princes, also underlined the mayor.
Asked about the subject, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of Sport Pierre Rabadan said Thursday that “beyond the sale of the Park, we have solutions to offer […]. Despite a path that surprised us in the positions taken, we want to resume the discussions “.
For their part, the club says they will come back to the discussion table, “only if we come back to the idea of selling”, because “like any football club on the European scene, we need to own the stadium”. and their “priority” remains the Parc des Princes.
Words that will reassure PSG supporters, who wish to stay in the historic enclosure. A banner has also been installed near the Park: “PSG was born in Saint-Germain, grew up at the Parc des Princes, died under QSI and is buried at the Stade de France”.
