The Ernest-Wallon stadium, home of the Stade Toulousain.

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Frédéric Scheiber / Sipa

  • Initially scheduled at the Stadium on September 20, the Champions Cup quarter-final between Stade Toulousain and Ulster will finally take place at Ernest-Wallon.

  • The gauge of 5,000 people, imposed because of the Covid-19, was right in the relocation of this Franco-Irish duel in the largest enclosure of the city (33,000 places).

  • This constraint represents a headache for the club, forced to refuse the world for its home matches, like Saturday against La Rochelle in the Top 14.

It is not a surprise, just the officialization of a news expected and feared by the supporters of the Stade Toulousain.

The Champions Cup quarter-final against the Irish from Ulster, on September 20, will not be played at the Stadium (33,000 seats) but in the usual club grounds, at Ernest-Wallon (19,000 seats).

The same where President Rouge et Noir Didier Lacroix made this announcement on Wednesday, "death in the soul".

This Franco-Irish shock, initially set for April 5 but postponed due to coronavirus, represents the major meeting at the start of the season for the most successful club in France.

But what is the point of relocating a meeting condemned to be played in front of 5,000 people, the limit of the gauge for an event in the red zone like Haute-Garonne?

None, hence this constrained and forced choice.

Didier Lacroix, the president of Stade Toulousain, September 9, 2020 at the Ernest-Wallon stadium.

- Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes

“We had sold 27,000 tickets and we should have sold the 33,000, says Didier Lacroix.

We will reimburse all the people and put the 5,000 seats allocated to us back on sale.

"Repayments" accompanied by apologies "from enthusiasts who had sometimes acquired their precious sesame for six months.

"We are going to create further frustration," laments Lacroix.

Meeting Monday at 12:30 p.m. on the Internet

The sale will take place on Monday from 12:30 p.m., six days before the quarter-final, on the club's internet ticket office.

Subscribers and partners will be priority, which means that the general public will have to wait to see Médard, Kaino, Baille and their colleagues at work this season.

It is already impossible to fit 6,600 people into a stadium with a capacity limited to 5,000 places.

The first number represents the sum of Stade Toulousain subscribers (4,100) and seats reserved for partners.

With the switch to red, football and (especially) rugby are grinding black https://t.co/Z87LwG3PBy

- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) August 28, 2020

So we have to manage.

The club thus sent a letter to its subscribers asking them to "make the effort to give up attending the match against La Rochelle", Saturday during the second day of Top 14, in exchange for the guarantee of being able to go to the next meeting at Ernest-Wallon, on October 4 against Toulon.

The initiative went badly among some regulars, but the club wanted to defuse any controversy by indicating that the partners had also been asked to show solidarity.

Finally, 900 subscribers decided to skip their turn, while 900 places were scratched on the side of the partners.

Result: 4,800 people are expected on Saturday during the first home outing of the 2019 French champions, six days after the promises sown in Clermont at the opening of the ball, despite the defeat (33-30).

A huge financial loss

Playing in front of a reduced gauge inevitably has enormous repercussions for a club whose “75% of the budget depends on the public and the partners”, says Didier Lacroix.

The Toulouse boss indicates that playing the European quarter-final in front of 33,000 people at the Stadium would have generated a net revenue of around 750,000 euros for his club.

And in front of 5,000 spectators at Ernest-Wallon?

“We must divide by seven or eight the net profitability recorded in our budgets.

We better understand the call for help launched to the government by all of the pro French rugby, the Stade Toulousain in the lead.

A response is expected within a fortnight.

In addition, Lacroix will ask the prefect of Haute-Garonne for a derogation to be able to accommodate 6,500 people against Toulon on October 4.

Difficult to imagine, especially since Prime Minister Jean Castex clearly specified, on August 27, that it would be impossible to exceed the famous 5,000 gauge as long as a department remains classified in red because of active circulation of the coronavirus.

Hence Lacroix's message to the population of Haut-Garonnaise: “If we have to help Stade Toulousain, it is by respecting barrier gestures.

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