lawn, athletics tracks, screens, 5G… The Stade de France under construction in preparation for the Olympic Games

The Paris 2024 organization must recover the Stade de France on June 1. The teams therefore have less than six months left to revamp the site.

On October 28, 30 players from South Africa and New Zealand competed in the final of the Rugby World Cup on the Stade de France pitch. Two months later, mid-December, instead there is an expanse of earth and sand on which a tractor is pulling a harrow, a sort of lawn comb.

The Stade de France is closed due to construction. It is getting a makeover in view of the Olympic Games since it will host rugby sevens next summer and then athletics events. Until then, no events will take place there: no competitions, no concerts.

On the site, gardeners from the iTurf Management company are busy combing, leveling and strengthening. “Since the start of the week, we have scalped the lawn, describes Jessy Machefaux, the coordinator. That is to say, we removed all the natural material from this lawn and we ended up with the plastic fiber which allows us to have a more resistant lawn. And we’re going to come and resow at the end of March-beginning of April, and at the beginning of June, it will be ready.”.

The Stade de France has a tight schedule. He must officially hand over the keys to the Paris 2024 organization on June 1. Around the lawn, the athletics track will then have to be laid.

“The track is very degraded by everything that has happened over the last ten years.”

Fabrice Reigner, site manager

at franceinfo

The track suffered damage related to “severe weather”, to “concerts and other event operations taking place in the arena”, underlines the site manager, Fabrice Reigner. Currently, this track is half cut and glued. For the site manager, a real marathon begins: “We still have almost 14 000 m² of track. Everything is done on site. It’s exactly like a road, with a thin layer of tartan that will come like a carpet, and which will be stuck to the others. All traces are to the nearest millimeter”.

The Paris 2024 organization requested a 9th lane on the track but also larger screens equivalent to two tennis courts, greener electrification and the 5G network in the stands deployed for this summer. “Hosting the Olympic Games is not an operation that generates revenue at the Stade de France, it is an operation that costs, estimates Loïc Duroselle, the site’s deputy general manager. The discussion was to ensure that this was done under reasonable conditions so that the infrastructure could continue, so that is the case.” The Stade de France has thus reached an agreement with the Organizing Committee of the Games and the French State for a provision contract. It should be signed in the coming days.