• Stade Rennais has unveiled the expansion project for its Piverdière training center.

  • The football club plans to expand to an additional 3.5 hectares in order to “stay competitive” and consolidate all of its activities on one site.

  • The project, valued at more than 35 million euros, should start in the summer of 2023 and be completed two years later.

“The current infrastructures no longer meet the standards of a modern and ambitious club”.

The sentence dates from 2019 and is signed Olivier Létang, who then officiated as president of Stade Rennais.

Three years later, another Olivier made the same observation.

This Friday, Olivier Cloarec presented the project to extend his training center at La Piverdière.

Nicknamed "Piv'2", this case has seen many twists and turns in recent years.

He finally leads an extension of 3.5 hectares which will allow the club to be a little less cramped on its plot of just over 15 hectares.

A scenario which is almost unanimous and offers the advantage of being able to be launched quickly.

Because to hear the leaders of the last fourth in Ligue 1, there was urgency.

“Everything had become too cramped”

In March, Stade Rennais surprised everyone by asking for an additional extension of more than six hectares, instead of 3.5 initially.

In the wild and preserved sector of Prévalaye, the news had made people jump.

And the club backtracked.

“We will have eleven and a half pitches.

In an ideal world, we would have liked to have more, we are not going to hide it.

Twenty or even 25 hectares.

But the site presents constraints and we tried to optimize as much as possible,” explains Olivier Cloarec.

Rather than build too many new pitches, the club decided to equip them with a hybrid surface.

Less fragile, it speeds up the rotation between lands and avoids a fallow system that is normally essential.

Arrived at the club in April 2021 and recently appointed president of Stade Rennais, the leader delivers a simple explanation for this choice of reason.

“The Piv' file has been on the table for four or five years.

We couldn't wait any longer, we had to move on.

Our gym, the spa, the offices for our 220 employees… Everything had become too cramped”.

The chairman of the board of directors Jacques Delanoë agrees.

“For the past few seasons, we have had a tremendous sporting dynamic.

We want to maintain and develop this dynamic.

Today, when we want to bring in a player, we have to be able to seduce him with the modernity of our equipment.

This was no longer the case.

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A field open to the public on the site

This expansion of the training center will also make it possible to consolidate all activities on a single site.

Aging, the Odorico training center which was installed at the foot of Roazhon Park will be integrated into La Piverdière.

On the site, the buildings will be spread over a total area of ​​9,000 m² which will include all offices, professional equipment, the training center as well as an amphitheater and a restaurant.

A field of "five" will be accessible to the public to make the site "as open as possible".

“We also have the idea of ​​creating a central square to make it a football village,” specifies Jacques Delanoë.

Summoned by the city to be exemplary in environmental terms, Stade Rennais has opted for wooden cladding that will regulate the interior temperature.

Green roofs, bocage hedges and a major rainwater harvesting system are also announced.

Owned by billionaire François Pinault, the club will invest “at least 35 million euros” in this project which should start at the start of the 2023 school year and end two years later.

Owner of the land, the municipality will discuss the project Monday evening during the municipal council.

But we already know the opinion of the mayor Nathalie Appéré on this file.

“The city is very enthusiastic, very happy to see this project come to fruition.

The summary of the exchanges shows points of consensus.

It will be a unique place, ”said the socialist mayor of Rennes.

The municipality has also agreed to share the grounds of Moulin du Comte with the Stade Rennais football school which welcomes 250 players.

"This site was used very little or not at all," assumes the mayor.

Its infrastructure will be “quickly” renovated and a synthetic pitch will be set up there.

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