“Stade Rennais Land” : A well advanced reflection

OL Land, this sports and leisure resort to be built by 2013 around the new Lyon stadium has, it seems, given ideas to some on the Vilaine banks. According to Le Mensuel de Rennes, the Stade Rennais Football club and the city of Rennes have been working on a similar project since over a year.

On June 2nd 2010, according to the magazine, Rennes’ mayor Daniel Delaveau spent an afternoon discussing the project with Patrick Le Lay, the Stade Rennes president. “Both men would like to see a shopping mall built around the Route de Lorient stadium.” Hotels, shops, gyms, a “Rouge et Noir” go-karting track are among the possibilities imagined.

The club is indeed keen on “bringing more life to the stadium and its surroundings seven days a week rather than one evening every two weeks” (during the games), the Rennes management reports, while refusing to give any more details. The magazine adds: “The entrance to the Stadium would then be in the Cleunay area, where the underground will arrive in 2018.”

An economic development to strengthen the sportive project

"Between the future underground entrance and the Stadium, the distance is the same as between the Stade de France and its RER station », explains Sébastien Sémeril, the mayor’s assistant in charge of sports. The new “Rouge et Noir” commercial area could then be set up around the Vilaine, around the Moulin-du-Compte, on a green area currently belonging to the town (Near the existing commercial centre).

"The club needs to create more sources of cash flow in order to improve », Sébastien Séméril adds. And this is the main interest of this project for Stade Rennes. “At the moment, 60% of its project is composed of the TV Revenues.” This Lyon-style economic development would allow the club to multiply the sources of income, and therefore increase its budget.

This would therefore be a true chance for the club. The project is part of a development strategy -economical and sportive – decided within the club in the aim to make it grow. A club “strategy” of which Pierre Dréossi was explaining the sportive side, only a week ago (read previously).

According to the magazine, “Stade rennais land” should go ahead during 2011, with the city waiting for the club’s requirements before launching a urban study “including the propositions and reflexions from the Stade Rennais.”

Source

- "Stade rennais land, L’antre du foot-business", Le Mensuel de Rennes, December 2010

Also Read

- Dréossi : “We will stick to our policy, whatever people say”

Photo : leendeleo / Flickr