There’s still a question of where Paris Saint Germain will play in the future. The Ligue 1 leaders were strongly hoping to buy Parc de Princes, but they have to consider other options as well.

Parc de Princes not for PSG

The French champions seem to be resigned to the fact that the facility they have been using since 1974 will not become their own. Despite long negotiations, lucrative offers and renovations made with their own funds, PSG authorities failed to persuade the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to agree to sell Parc de Princes on behalf of the city. It appeared that even an astronomical sum would not convince the French capital's authorities to change their minds.

However, the club has several contingency plans in store. The first is rumored to be the purchase of a plot of land and the construction of a new stadium, but procedural issues and the lack of favor from the Paris magistrate may stop its implementation. If this would be the case, it’s decided to first look around for a facility that could be bought outright and only then possibly upgraded. The fact that PSG's Qatari owners are aiming high is borne out by the fact that they have not chosen a smaller arena as their target, but Stade de France located in Saint Denis, near Paris. Some time ago, the media - including our portal - reported that the club's bid for France's biggest stadium could be €600 million.

© Chabe01 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Parisians have a backup plan

We already know that the Paris Saint Germain authorities have taken serious steps to allow the club to leave Parc de Princes in the coming years. Since February, the Canadian consortium Colliers, which is one of the world's largest property valuation and trading companies, has been very active. The specialists are supposed to help the club choose the option that will be most advantageous from not only a financial point of view. This is why there is so much talk that PSG is seriously trying on the bidding process for the acquisition of the Stade de France. It has been perceived that there is a good chance of acquiring the facility, which is currently in the hands of the French government.

The main arena for next summer's Olympic Games will first undergo a series of renovations. These are scheduled to start in January 2024 and be completed in July, just before the start of the sporting quadrennial event. We wrote about how the stadium will change in this article. However, investment in athletics infrastructure could be an obstacle to a possible deal for the subsequent disposal of the facility. There is no doubt that PSG, having taken over the arena, would like to make upgrades to make Stade de France a strictly football stadium. However, as L'Équipe reports, the club is not in a losing position and, thanks to the financial aspects, it may not have any problems doing so.

Until t July 1, 2025, the holding company Vinci and Bouygues, which was entrusted with the role of arena operator by the French government in 1995, will still remain. It is already known that two invitations will be sent in March 2025 to those interested in using Stade de France - one to bid for the concession contract (as has been the case so far), the other for the direct purchase of the Saint Denis stadium. PSG would like to have all the cards in hand and is still, however, not ruling out other options. Although Parc de Princes’ lease expires in 2044, there is much talk of renegotiating it. The city is also open to this, and is in a position to agree to a possible shortening of it in a bid to erase the negative impression of being blocked from buying the arena.

© Jean Pierre Boiste

The French champions are also considering building a new facility. The Saint-Cloud horse racing track and the grounds of the Poissy commune are mentioned as potential locations. The problem, however, is that both locations are subsequently 15 km and 25 km from the centre of Paris.