EuroStadium

For the planned stadium in Brussels, see Eurostadium.

EuroStadium is a multi-use stadium in Strasbourg, France, that had been planned. If completed, it would have been used mostly for football matches and will host the home matches of RC Strasbourg. The stadium was expected to have a capacity of 42,710 people and would have replaced their current stadium, the Stade de la Meinau. Estimates expected the cost to be about €250 million.

Context

Strasbourg's current stadium, the Stade de la Meinau, dates, in its actual shape, from the early 1980s, having been fully rebuilt to host Euro 1984. However, the stadium was quickly outdated due to the more stringent safety regulations that followed the tragic events of Heysel, Hillsborough and Furiani. La Meinau originally featured extensive use of terraces and has therefore seen its capacity drastically reduced due to the limitation of standing areas in stadia. In 1993, the Strasbourg municipality, owner of La Meinau, declined an invitation by Michel Platini to host World Cup 1998, citing the excessive cost of the works necessary to meet the new standards. The municipality had been pouring money in the Racing club de Strasbourg for years and felt that it was time to retract its financial involvement in professional sport and to focus on other urban projects. In addition, La Meinau was rarely sold-out due to the club's relatively poor performances at that time, meaning that an extension was not considered necessary or even desirable. Later on, the popular success of the 1998 tournament in France and the general rise of interest for football that followed in the country generated some afterthoughts and regrets in Strasbourg. Controversy over the "failure" to host the World Cup was one of the elements that led to the defeat of mayor Catherine Trautmann during the 2001 municipal election.

When the IMG–McCormack Group took over the RCS, 1997 it had plans for a renovated or even new stadium in which it would be possible to extend business-related activities. However, the project was stubborn, mainly because of the club's poor faring under IMG and low attendance rates. Instead, IMG settled with the municipality for a minor refurbishment of the stadium in exchange for an increased rental fee (1.5 million euros). Since then, the RCS has been losing money with its stadium because of low tariffs and the insufficient number of executive suits and VIP areas. The idea of a totally new stadium hence quickly came back when Racing enjoyed popular success again in 2005, with an average attendance around 20,000, and gained momentum with the success of World Cup 2006 in neighbouring Germany. When assuming the chairmanship, Philippe Ginestet clearly announced that a new stadium was a top priority for the RCS.

External links

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