Aviron Bayonnais hosts Union Bordeaux-Bègles this Saturday August 20 (8 p.m.), in a warm-up match, to give themselves a “taste of the Top 14”. Only promoted to the top flight this season, the Pro D2 champion could play his last match there in a stadium with reduced capacity. The president of the sky and white club is indeed counting on theopening of the new south stand from the first match championship at home, Saturday September 10, against Racing 92 (5 p.m.).
By the end of the year, Aviron Bayonnais will have completed the vast renovation plan for the Jean-Dauger stadium and the construction of the “AB Stadium”, the training center, and the “AB Campus “, the performance center, which should allow it to develop financially and athletically. The chairman of the board of directors, Philippe Tayeb is confident in the future of the club. Interviewed by France Bleu Pays Basque, he displays his ambitions in the short and medium term.
France Bleu Pays Basque: Will the new stand (south) be ready for the first home game, on the second day of Top 14 against Racing 92?
Philippe Tayeb: Yes, normally, we should be able to have the public for Racing, subject to validation by the safety commission. But only the general public because all the hospitality areas and all the technical, press, locker room and medical parts will only be delivered at the end of the year.
You will therefore have the maximum capacity for the return to Top 14, which is rather good news.
Yes, there is a wait. The current capacity is 10,500 seats, tomorrow it will be 14,000. The companies involved in this project are working hard, they are mobilizing a lot of staff, putting in a lot of resources, because we still have requirements, we have made significant requests. We can be proud to have led such an important project with 27 or 28 local stakeholders. There is also the future training center looming. At the end of the month, players will be able to enter the pro part (the rest by the end of the year, editor’s note).
So a priori, you will not have any prejudice to play from the second day at Jean-Dauger, when you had asked to play the first two games away?
Normally there will be no damage if the weather is good. The construction companies, in August, are more on vacation than in activity, but at home they will work hard to deliver this platform to us for the reception of Racing.
The final delivery of this stand, including hospitality, is therefore scheduled for the end of December. This will complete the renovation of the stadium (the east stand, called “Keolis”, was delivered a year ago), was it essential for the development of the club?
Yes. We are in a real economy with the participation of all components of the club, ie subscribers and supporters, partners, institutions. We have also obtained the agreement of new partners and a significant financial effort from current partners as well as from the board of directors to allow us to build this budget of 21.5 million euros. Tomorrow is 1000 additional hospitality. When we see the economy that it will allow us to generate and especially not to have risk areas with a partner or a major shareholder in the club who could unbalance tomorrow, in the event of withdrawal, a whole story. That’s why our economic model today is really what we want, “a popular club”. It’s really a pride to be the president of a club like that, with this importance of the land and the families who support us. If you don’t have people like we can have on the board of directors, we would never have been able to raise the funds necessary to build AB Etxea.
Today’s budget of 21.5 million is one of the smallest in this Top 14. Is there an ambition to increase this budget in the long term?
I believe that the local potential is 23 to 24 million. This is what we will be able to get, with of course the arrival of new partners and the efforts of all the components and members of Aviron Bayonnais. Beyond that, it will seem very very complicated to me. But the luck we have is that during the 2024-2025 season, the salary cap will drop to 10 million euros. And us, if we arrive with our 23/24 million (budget), we will perhaps be around 9 and a half million in the salary cap and we will come to level with the other Top 14 teams. But with a particularity: it’s Bayonne, it’s the region, it’s the Basque Country, it’s the environment and the enthusiasm that surrounds the club. Maxime Machenaud and Camille Lopez (the two French internationals recruited this season, editor’s note) said “we signed in Bayonne to experience this fervor”. They had the option of staying or going to other clubs, maybe a little more seasoned at the top of the table.
What is your sporting ambition?
This year, we will arrive in the division with a lot of humility. We are the only ones going up. There are no small teams. Today, it is first of all to aim for this maintenance, to stabilize this club in the Top 14. Afterwards, it is to start working on training with many young people and especially also, I hope, the return of certain talents who must return to the club. They want it I believe. And above all, we will have the means to bring them back structurally and financially and perhaps discuss with them the professional retraining of these great players*.
For these ambitions, there is the stadium, but there is also the AB Campus.
It was the beginning of the project, managing to build a place to live, especially a high-level training center. It’s 4,000 square meters with a covered hall. The professionals will return there at the end of the month. And then, little by little, we are going to open different stages of this AB Campus. A tool of this dimension in Jean-Dauger, in the city center, thanks to the support of the public authorities whom I thank, and especially Jean-René Etchegarray our Mayor. Today, Bayonne has taken on the dimension of a serious club, a club under construction. At the end of the year, everyone will be able to return, with the women’s section, the training center, the professionals who will have access to all the spaces. I believe that we will really have everything to hopefully stay in this division, but we are never certain of anything. That’s why when I’m asked the question “Did we recruit well?” I say : “we will see him on May 27”.
Isn’t the workforce today still a little light in certain positions?
A president must preside, a coach must coach, the players must play. I remain in my role as president. The staff wants to start the season with the current squad. It would be an offense to the players who are there to say that we are not well on the right, at the back or in the middle. There are players who have signed, a squad of 42 players, with 18 recruits and surely, the arrival of two additional players to expand this squad. We have to let the season start and then we will see where we have shortcomings and at that time the staff will be able to ask us to bring in other players. But they are the ones who select the players, they are the ones who recruit. The management is there to provide the maximum means for sporting success.
We know the quality of the Aviron Bayonnais training center which has brought out great players, who have left to flourish elsewhere. Are you counting on this new center to achieve your goals?
Yes, it is first of all an obligation because we have a formation today which is part of the five or six best French players each year and which proves that the players are there. This year, we will have between twelve and fourteen elements trained at the club who will be part of the senior workforce. And also players that we picked up from neighboring clubs like Mauléon, with Erbinartegaray and Orabé. I think it’s good and that’s how Rowing will manage to settle, to last in the Top 14.
I understand those who left because we did not meet the expectations of the top level. Today, we can tell them that yes, we are going to meet the expectations of the top level. And this despite some people who criticize, have opposed or have continued to want to oppose the evolution of the club, I believe that we must still look at the work that has been done for four years. I hope that these people will recognize themselves because they were not very sympathetic towards us, towards me. People pass, but the institution must remain a priority. That’s why I hope that these people, I call them “the lecturers of downtown Bayonne”, will come to their senses and stop criticizing this club and its leaders.
It is also important to note that this year, the club will be in surplus on the financial part. The DNACG validated our budget at the end of June. Today, Rowing is doing well at all levels. Now, people have to let us work in serenity because wasting time on futile or harmful things becomes tiring.
*Among the active players who have passed through the Aviron Bayonnais training center, we can cite Charles Ollivon, _the captain of Toulon and the XV of France during the last summer tour in Japan, Anthony Etrillard, RCT hooker, Baptiste Chouzenoux, 3rd line of Racing 92, Martin Laveau, Castres winger, MaxSpring, rear of Racing 92, selected for the first time this summer in Japan with the XV of France or even Mateo Garcia, opening half and Ugo Boniface, left pillar who joined the Union Bordeaux-Bègles. _
An 18th official arrival
Bayonne announced the arrival this Friday of Olajuwon Noa32-year-old Samoan flanker (1.93m; 11kg). The third line signs on the edges of Nive for a season, plus an optional one, from the Durban Sharks. He has five caps with Samoathe first in June 2021 during the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, against Tonga.
– MARTY MELVILLE