Battle for Stade de France heats up

Article posted by Coliseum, February 7^th, 2025

Image: Coliseum GSVA

There has been another twist in the battle over who will manage the Stade de France after current incumbents Vinci-Bouygues decided to take the State to court over its decision to award the contract to GL Events.

Les Echos said the Vinci-Bouygues consortium, concessionaire of the Saint-Denis stadium until August 4, has filed an appeal with the administrative court over what they say are irregularities in the tender process.

The two construction giants want to see the public authorities’ choice to enter into exclusive negotiations with the Lyon events company annulled, because of unequal treatment of the candidates.

The Stade de France is the national stadium of France located just North of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis.

Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the largest stadium in France. The stadium is used by the French national football and rugby union teams for international competitions.

Construction firms Vinci and Bouygues currently hold the concession to manage and operate the Stade de France but the consortium was excluded from renewing the deal, despite submitting a proposal.

The proposal drawn up by Vinci-Bouygues envisaged €400 million in upgrades as part of a project that would have created a joint company featuring representatives from the French Football Federation (FFF) and the French Rugby Federation (FFR). GL Events offered around €120 million.

At the beginning of December, the State, owner of the Stade de France, entered into exclusive negotiations with the Lyon events group GL Events as part of the awarding of the Stade de France concession for the next 30 years.

GL Events is a global company that provides event services including event organization, venue management and event strategies.

However, according to Vinci-Bouygues, GL Events does not demonstrate “the capacity to carry out comparable works” at the Stade de France and has “no reference in terms of construction and works”, according to Me Thomas Courtel, lawyer for the consortium.

The Vinci-Bouygues consortium has asked the courts to clarify the company’s position, arguing that GL Events’ offer was “incomplete” and “based on misleading information”.

Me Sophie Pignon, representing GL Events said, “GL Events has demonstrated that the company has the capacity to exploit this type of infrastructure for commercial and sporting events. The company is a recurring player in sporting events and has been involved in all the Olympic Games since 1996.”

The FFF and FFR have previously said they are looking to team up to run the Stade de France if plans to hand operatorship to GL Events fall through.

The two federations are unhappy with conditions the events company could set if it lands the management and operations contract and would like to step in to run the venue themselves.

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