Soccer. At the Red Star, the Bauer stadium name is not for sale

It may well be empty of its supporters for almost a year because of the pandemic, it still makes so much noise. Lately, it is its renovation and its sale that are causing a lot of talk in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis). It must be said that the Bauer stadium, the mythical lair of the Red Star, a club in the northern suburbs of Paris which plays in National (5th, with three games late), is a historical monument, symbol of popular anti-racist and anti-fascist football.

Former cache of weapons during the Occupation, the enclosure bears the name of Doctor Jean-Claude Bauer, resistance fighter shot in 1942 at Mont-Valérien. At least, that’s what everyone believed a short time ago… On February 8, Karim Bouamrane, the PS mayor of Saint-Ouen, decided, as part of the renovation, to officially rename it with the name of Doctor Bauer during a city council vote. Built in 1909 under the name “Saint-Ouen stadium” then renamed “Paris stadium” when it was modernized in 1922 for the 1924 Olympic Games, the place had retained this name in the texts.

A sale of 26.5 million euros

In a second deliberation voted on the same day, the municipal council indicates that “The municipality will ensure that the name Bauer stadium is preserved within the framework of the promise to sell for a minimum period of 99 years”. Scheduled for the month of May, the sale of the land should indeed definitively record the transfer of the stadium, owned by the City, to the promoter Réalités for the sum of 26.5 million excluding taxes, a price set by the Domains. It was William Delannoy, the former UDI mayor, who in 2018 decided to include the renovation of the Bauer stadium in the call for projects “Inventons la métropole du Grand Paris”, providing for the sale of this public property to a private company. . “The right made the sale as part of a competition that had no interest for the municipality because it did not release public money, deplores Émilie Lecroq, PCF municipal councilor in Saint-Ouen, who voted against. He was just linking up a partnership with a private company. “

Winner of the competition in 2019, the promoter Réalités must enlarge the enclosure, of which currently only 3,000 seats are approved, to 9,750 spectators with four stands, three of which are covered while retaining its aspect of “English stadium” from the early twentieth century. century and bring it up to the standards of Leagues 1 and 2. Work must begin in May at the end of the championship and the final delivery of the work is scheduled for the end of 2024 or early 2025, with a retail and office building with a surface area of 30,000 m2. Throughout the construction site, the team will operate in the stadium.

“We have confirmed the sustainability of the name of the“ Bauer stadium ”in the municipal council. The City supports the club’s sporting development and the preservation of the stadium’s intangible heritage ”, defends Karim Bouamrane, Mayor of Saint-Ouen, Vice-President of the Greater Paris Metropolis. The current municipality explains that “If the city remained the owner, it could not invest in the renovation of the stadium, which costs at least 25 million euros. What we want is for the Red Star to play Bauer. For the club to be able to develop and return to Ligue 2 or even Ligue 1, the stadium must be renovated and not that the team go into exile in Beauvais when it is in Ligue 2 like these last seasons. ns with, each time, an immediate descent “.

Need for safeguards

Last November, Réalités acquired a stake in the club, of which it owns less than 20% without any seat on the board of directors. “We have undertaken to maintain the annual rent which is that requested by the City during the construction phase, i.e. 50,000 euros, specifies Luc Belot, Managing Director of Réalités. For the rest, it will depend on our discussions with the club and the final project of the stadium that we are going to build, the number of boxes, the operation by the club. The goal is ultimately for the club to become the owner of the stadium, because it is a working tool. We do not intend to remain the owner indefinitely. “

For now, as part of the cession, the municipality is working “To a clause so that in the event of a resale Réalités offers the City the priority for redemption. Future buyers must also undertake to keep the Bauer stadium name.  ». A deliberation in municipal council “Is not binding, emphasizes Émilie Lecroq. A simple vote is not enough to protect the name ”. The Red Star Bauer fan group, which is associated with discussions on the renovation project with the City, Réalités and the club, is also very attentive to the conservation of the Bauer stadium name. To prevent a future purchaser from being tempted to use naming, i.e. giving the name of a brand to the stadium or attaching it to the existing name, he wants the implementation as soon as possible a legal mechanism, a real safeguard preserving the excesses of football. “It would be a first in France and in Europe”, launches Vincent Chutet-Mézence, president of the supporters association, who also wishes the nomination of a platform in the name of Rino Della Negra, footballer of the Red Star member of the Manouchian group.

For Patrice Haddad, president of Red Star, “The priority today are the conditions of occupation of the future stadium. We are in the midst of negotiating the rent with the future owner to protect the club and make it sustainable within the Bauer stadium. Once the conventions are well established, the naming will be evoked in relation to the one who will have the enjoyment of it. If we were to have it, there will be no ambiguity, we will follow this recommendation which is worthy of the club and the history of its stadium ”.

” No trust at all “

A position that does not reassure the supporters who think that the president, whose economic model he has chosen for the club is unknown, leaves himself an open door in case he wants to sell the club one day so as not to eliminate a source of income for a future buyer. They want the club to firmly commit to signing this document prohibiting any possibility of naming. “We can sense this desire on the part of the City, the Réalités group has told us that it is also in favor of it, details Vincent Chutet-Mézence . On the other hand, the Red Star is the only one not to take a position on this document. This is very worrying because what is being decided at the moment commits the Red Star for decades. “ And add: “We often speak of the Red Star as a unique club, the presidency of the club first, it should not be just incantations, it has to be translated into action. Signing a document that involves a non-naming mechanism would be a strong symbol when starting the stadium renovation. Today, we have no confidence in the reassuring words that are being made. The club says it has voted in favor of the Bauer stadium denomination which was voted in by the city council. He plays on this ambiguity because, as we know, nothing protects the name. “

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