Paris (AFP)

The State, owner of the Stade de France, does not intend to prolong after 2025 the criticized contract which binds it to a private consortium for its exploitation and has extended the pole to the federations of football and rugby to find a new model.

"The decision was made and stopped not to renew the current concession," said Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu at a press briefing on the 2020 budget.

This announcement is not a great surprise, as the initial contract was deemed unfavorable to public finances. Concluded on April 29, 1995, between the two rounds of the presidential election, this contract between the State and the Consortium Stade de France, formed by the construction giants Vinci and Bouygues, provided for the latter to build the compound in exchange for a 30-year concession.

But the state, which had invested 191 million euros of the 361 that cost the stadium, had to pay for years the equivalent of 115 million euros to the consortium, as compensation for absence of club resident.

Because the ship of Saint-Denis, theater of grandiose sports events, where Zidane's Blues won their first football World Cup in 1998, has never found a team to its size and the enclosure hosts an average of 20 to 30 events a year. In total, public expenditure has amounted to € 778 million since 1995, the Court of Auditors noted at the end of 2018.

- no offer to buy -

The economic model of the Stade de France is also criticized for its fragmentation between different actors who often have different interests: the State owner, the consortium that exploits it and its users, federations of football and rugby or concert organizers.

A state-sponsored study by Roland Berger and Wavestone, whose ministry released a summary on Friday, argues for a more integrated model, citing as an example Wembley, property of the English football federation, or that of rugby in Twickenham .

In such a large enclosure, where only concerts and prestigious matches can be hosted, and in a context of stronger competition (Arena de La Defense, Groupama Stadium in Lyon ...) the study recommends to bet on hospitality ( lodges), rental of space for exhibitors and a naming contract is suggested.

"The preferred solution is to entrust the concession to a private partner associated with the federations," says one firm Roxana Maracineanu. "We are moving with the federations in question," said the minister.

But are these really interested? An entry to the capital of the Stade de France appeared in the program of Bernard Laporte to be elected to the rugby federation in 2016. But "the resources that are released, they are intended to finance the rugby, by a possible deficit of "exploitation of the dionysienne enclosure, warned the treasurer of the FFR, Alexandre Martinez, in an interview with AFP early 2018. As for the French federation of football, she has always been cautious on the subject.

In this prospect of negotiation with the federations, the State leaves the door open to a pure and simple sale of the Stade de France, after the Olympics. Still, there must be a buyer. "For the moment, there has been no offer," admitted to the Ministry of Sports.

The choice of the future model arises while the Stade de France will be at the heart of the Olympic Games in Paris-2024 and a year earlier of the Rugby World Cup. In this perspective, the consortium had proposed to the State XXL renovation of the enclosure, aging, up to 450 million euros, proposing to finance it as part of a continuation of the concession. The government had already declined this job offer deemed to be pharaonic. The state has planned to invest 50 million euros to refresh the Stade de France by 2024.

© 2019 AFP