Parc des Princes

Infobox_Stadium
"' stadium_name = Parc des Princes
nickname = Le parc

UEFA
caption =
fullname = Parc des Princes
location = Paris, France
built = 1897
opened = 18 July 1897
renovated = 1932, 1972
closed =
demolished =
owner = City of Paris
operator = SESE
surface = Grass
construction_cost =
architect = Roger Taillibert
former_names =
tenants =
Paris SG
seating_capacity =
48,712
dimensions =|The Parc des Princes, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France was originally a velodrome, the finish of the Tour de France from its start in 1903 until the track's demolition. It is now the 48,712-seat home of football team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). It was the national stadium until the Stade de France was built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The Parc des Princes stadium and grounds are owned by the City of Paris. The name "Parc des Princes" ("Princes' Park") was given to the surrounding area during the 18th century, when it was a forest used by the royal family for hunting.

Velodrome

In one corner of the 19th-century Parc des Princes was a laboratory. That was demolished in 1897 and the site became a sports stadium. It was so quickly and badly built that spectators were denied access to the stands when it opened on July 18. There were fears that the stands would give way under the weight of spectators.Goddet, Jacques: L'Équipée Belle, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1991]

The track, managed by Henri Desgrange, who in 1903 founded the Tour de France, was 666 metres round, egg-shaped and almost without banking. The cycle track was the main feature but the size of the inner field meant other sports could be held there and, as Paris's main sports stadium, it accommodated the Olympic Games in 1924. By then the seating had expanded to 20,000 places. Desgrange and his successor, Jacques Goddet, then expanded capacity to 40,000. In fact there were 46,000 for the opening and the two were disciplined by the city authorities for overcrowding. At the same time, the track was reduced to 454 metres, given parallel straights and steeper bankings.

The second Parc des Princes hosted the final of the inaugural Rugby League World Cup in 1954, when Great Britain defeated France 16–12.

The last man to win a race on the track was Raymond Poulidor, when he won the last stage of the 1967 Tour de France. Roger Pingeon, the overall Tour winner, accepted his yellow jersey in a stadium in which demolition had already started.

Demolition

The cycle track was demolished to make room for a bypass, the Périphérique, to be built around Paris. Keeping the road to a straight line took it under one end of the track. Two of the Parc's four stands were demolished, and the rest stayed up for another two years before neglect meant they too had to come down.

Jacques Goddet, who had taken ownership of the track on the death of Henri Desgrange, fought the demolition order. He said:

:"That the administration of the city, with an especially motivated sports advisor, should want to interrupt the activities of the company running the Parc - my company - demands explanations. We had been model partners going right back to the previous century, having the most courteous, the most straightforward dealings with the administration of the city of Paris, which owned our land from its beginnings. We were its tenants and therefore we had a lease. It had all the clauses that any lease would have, right down to rights to raise the rent, terms for extension of the period of lease… As tenants, paying rent, we were therefore entitled to our rights, which were that when the time came to eject us, there was a duty, without discussion, to pay us the costs of the ending of the lease. Those would have been considerable sums, because our little Parc, its buildings and installations, just 32 years old, and its pretty pink track were in excellent state and produced a good income.

:"We found out that what the city of Paris had told us was a lease - something that nobody denied - wasn't one! What had been called a lease, treated as a lease, was just an error of description on the part of the city of Paris. Since 1898! And we who thought we were tenants, with all the rights of tenants, rights that until then had always been respected, suddenly found that under the law we were common concessionaires, people who could be shown the door without any legal discussion and without any damages."

A lawyer had found that the hiring agreement in the 19th century included a clause that children of a local school were allowed free use of the stadium on Thursday afternoons. The city of Paris claimed no tenancy agreement would include such a condition. A tenant had exclusive use of what he rented. Therefore Goddet had just a concession to use the land and could be evicted without compensation.

Goddet took the argument to appeal but failed. The velodrome became rubble to form the foundations of a soccer stadium. The track's shareholders received nothing in damages.

The Football stadium

The current Parc des Princes, designed by architect Roger Taillibert and built by Bouygues [ [http://www.bouygues.com/us/groupe/fiches/pop_parc_princes.html Bouygues website: Parc des Princes] ] , was opened in June 1972 and is a true football/rugby stadium with no track around the pitch. There have been two previous stadia on the site, which opened in 1897 and 1932, respectively. Both were essentially velodromes, and for many years (1904–1967) the stadium was the traditional finishing point for the Tour de France cycling race. Taillibert's all-seater design has proven in retrospect to be well ahead of its time, requiring only cosmetic improvements to meet vastly increased comfort and safety regulations through the 1990s and early 2000s. Having acquired PSG on April 10, 2006, the international real estate investment firm Colony Capital has announced a plan to upgrade the Parc des Princes, including the building of luxury amenities and a capacity expansion to 54,000. However, the dismal performance of PSG since the takeover have caused this plan to be put on hold. Whether the proposed expansion has the approval of the Paris city council is unclear as of late 2007.

The football club Racing Club de Paris played its home games at the Parc des Princes from 1984 to 1990. The rugby union club Stade Français competes across the road at the much smaller Stade Jean Bouin, but sometimes uses the Parc des Princes.

The modern Parc des Princes hosted one of France's greatest football achievements, the 2-0 victory over Spain in the 1984 European Championship final. It was also the scene of one of French football's most spectacular disasters on November 17, 1993, when "Les Bleus" were beaten 1-2 by Bulgaria in the last minute of play and thus failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States. At the club level, the Parc des Princes has been the scene of some of Paris Saint-Germain's most memorable European games, in particular a 4-1 victory over Real Madrid in the UEFA Cup quarter-final in 1993 in which PSG scored the crucial last goal on the very last play of the game.

"Les Bleus" have returned to the Parc des Princes only once since the opening of the Stade de France in 1998. On September 12, 2007, they were defeated 0-1 by Scotland in a Euro 2008 qualifier.

Parc des Princes also hosted various 2007 Rugby World Cup matches including the Argentina-Ireland showdown.

ee also

* Musée national du Sport

References

External links

* [http://www.leparcdesprinces.fr/ Official Parc des Princes web site]