For five years, Stade Rennes has grown, settling regularly at the top of the table in the league and chaining European qualifications. In search of growth at all levels, particularly economic, the leaders of Rennes seek to activate levers to compensate for budgetary differences with certain competitors.
It seems a long time ago when Stade Rennes was the answer to the question “what is red and black going up and down? » It was another time, another century and the Breton club is today considered a stronghold of French football, after having long blown hot and cold. Since 2017, the sports health of the Rouge et Noir has been excellent. There was the conquest of a title, finally, with the Coupe de France in 2019, and above all five qualifications in a row for the European Cup (1 in the Champions League, 3 in the Europa League and 1 in the Europa Conference League ), best current series with PSG in Ligue 1. After a fourth place in the last exercise, the Rennes leaders and Bruno Genesio repeated their desire to ” do better ” from this season, a barely masked way of assuming the podium objective, which could be a little further away this Sunday evening in the event of a defeat against Paris in a start to the year already marked by the serious injury of Martin Terrier . Is this a sign that the new glass ceiling will be difficult to break for the Bretons? “We need time. You have to keep this notion in mind: you can go up very quickly and fall very quickly.we explain to the club. We must continue on this path, we are in a positive dynamic. There is this desire to build and continue the development of the club. But the higher you want to climb, the higher the top step. »
“We have a budget of 110 million euros, where Lyon has 250. There is a global reflection on new levers, to be European in a sustainable way. We have been visible in Europe for five years now, but obviously the Champions League is even more attractive. » Florian Maurice in The Team
Limits and levers
The subject occupies a primordial place in the offices of La Piverdière, with an eternal question in the background: how to go even higher? The answers are mainly economic, “a basic prince” in football today, where it is advisable to be pragmatic, even cynical, rather than romantic. “We know the competition is fierce. Lyon has been bought, Nice seems to still want to invest. We also have the means, the owner gives us some, we try to be consistent in recruitment to move forward in this dimension, we think about continuing to grow, increasing the budgetposed sporting director Florian Maurice last month in The Team. There are leads on sponsorship, the stadium, naming… Strategy is more the responsibility of the president, but we have a budget of 110 million euros, where Lyon has 250. And there has a global reflection on new levers, to be European in a sustainable way. We have been visible in Europe for five years now, but obviously the Champions League is even more attractive. »
Only, the limits are numerous, and some are difficult or even impossible to overcome. The first is demographic: the 2020 census (legal population in force in January 2023) places the Rennes urban unit/agglomeration outside the top 10 in France behind Nantes, Toulon, Rouen or Grenoble, and very far behind Nice, Bordeaux, Toulouse or Lille. “There is a form of logic: in the big cities, there are more economic means and therefore more money for the clubs” , we complete at the SRFC. Another is the capacity of Roazhon Park (29,778 spectators, 8e enclosure of the country), where more than 600,000 people came last season, a record for the Breton club, without being enough to compete with several competitors in terms of revenue on match days. “Lyon can accommodate 60,000 spectators, double that. Even Beaujoire is close to 40,000explains a member of Stade Rennes. We have to find other levers to continue to be even more competitive, not to mention that we can see new ambitions arriving with new investors. »
This quest for economic growth should allow Rennes to see its budget increase, while it is around 110 million euros for the current season. It is more or less that of Nice and Lille, two competitors in European places, but it is also less than half of those of Monaco, Marseille and Lyon (around 250 million euros). Like the vast majority of elite clubs, Stade Rennes saw its net result suffer from the Covid-19 crisis, with a loss of 19.763 million euros over the 2020-2021 financial year, according to the report of the DNCG published last May. Ticketing revenue logically fell due to behind closed doors and gauges (957,000 euros against 7.1 million euros the previous season). Lately, Breton supporters have rumbled against the prices to attend a match at Roazhon Park, while the price of tickets for the reception of PSG this Sunday ranged from 29 to 170 euros, like last season.
The crowds give reason to the contested strategy of the SRFC, even if the leaders claim to want to preserve the image of a popular and family club through initiatives such as subscriber days. Not sure that these attentions or the diffusion ofa dinner bringing together former residents of Rennes are enough to convince fans to pay more to pay the staggering salaries of their idols, whom they can hardly see anywhere but at the stadium since behind closed doors training has become the norm for Bruno Genesio’s group. “If we want to keep moving forward, there are things that we will have to concedewe assume on the banks of the Vilaine. The naming of the stadium is a lever like any other to be able to increase the budget, have very good players and try to be even more competitive. » However, there is no way yet to forge a partnership so that Roazhon Park becomes a new Groupama Stadium or Orange Vélodrome, while the construction of a new enclosure or its expansion is not at all topical.
La Piverdière 2 for a better horizon
More concrete and validated by the municipal council, the Piverdière 2 project, which consists of an extension and renovation of the Stade Rennais training and life center in three phases (professionals, training center and administrative offices), is considered as “a major element for the club to continue its progress” . Work should begin in the coming months, between May and September, for delivery expected at the end of 2025. The historic site of the Breton club must therefore be extended to 15 hectares (i.e. 3.6 hectares more) when the management was hoping for a twenties before being confronted with ecological issues and strong opposition. It was time for the SRFC, very late in terms of infrastructure when we know that the Luchin area represents 45 hectares for LOSC or that clubs like Lorient, Montpellier or Reims are also ahead. Figures which are of course light years away from the future center of PSG, planned on 74 hectares. Rennes now hopes to modernize its buildings and in particular its training center, at the heart of the sports strategy for many years. A project that could allow the club to grow also in the offices, where the lack of staff can sometimes be felt in certain areas: the Rouge et Noir currently have around 250 employees, including professional staff, compared to a little more than double at the OL for comparison. The future premises will have to be accompanied by an evolution at this level to approach a European standard from which the Breton club still seems far away. The cost of the Piv 2 operation? At least 35 million euros, an investment entirely borne by Stade Rennes and the Pinault family so that it costs the taxpayer nothing.
This is what the Piv 2 will look like pic.twitter.com/q8c8eVV8GX
— OF Stade Rennes (@ofstaderennais) June 24, 2022
“One more place in C1 would change a lot of things for commercial rights and TV rights which are so profitable. We support French clubs for the good of our football, and the others are also supporters of Stade Rennes on the European scene. » A member of the SRFC
In the wake of French football
So much for the future perspective at Stade Rennes, where the leaders insist on the importance of looking beyond the end of the current season, which may seem anachronistic at a time when the culture of immediate results takes precedence over everything remains in the world of football. For this, Rennes dreams of betting on the stability of the men, the triumvirate composed of Olivier Cloarec, Florian Maurice and Bruno Genesio working very well. In a delicate economic context and in a championship where foreign investors are multiplying, the Pinault family, owner of the club since 1998, provides the SRFC with financial security and strengthens the local fiber. Growing up requires work and time, even if Rennes was able to rejoice recently to find itself in the second group, alongside Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Monaco and Nice, for the distribution of the billion and a half euros brought by the CVC funds, a sign of the club’s progress.
You will have to rely on yourself, but also on others, in this quest for growth. For Rennes, as for all the other French teams, the horizon of 2024 will be decisive for Ligue 1 with the new formula for the Champions League, a potential additional ticket for French clubs and the call for tenders for future TV rights. . For this, France must imperatively maintain its fifth position in the UEFA ranking (59.497 points currently against 56.700 for the Netherlands and 53.716 for Portugal), while the SRFC is the third best provider of points in the last five years (44.000) behind Lyon (61,000) and PSG (112,000). “It would be a disaster for French football, because one more place in C1 would change a lot of things for commercial rights and TV rights which bring in so muchwe develop in the Red and Black. We support French clubs for the good of our football and the others are also supporters of Stade Rennes on the European scene. » This Sunday, this medium and long-term ambition will disappear for an evening, as always, in favor of the result of a match against PSG which, basically, will not change anything in Rennes’ ambitions. Then, it will be time to start dreaming bigger.
By Clement Gavard
