“Unique in the French system”

The Groupama Stadium is the third largest stadium in France – and the only venue that is privately owned and operated. In addition, the LDLC Arena will open right next door at the end of the year. Interview with Xavier Pierrot, Deputy general director, in charge of both venues.

STADIAWORLD: Date of opening, capacity, construction costs: Please give us a brief overview of the key data for Groupama Stadium.
Pierrot: Groupama Stadium was launched on January 9th, 2016. Construction started in July 2013. The venue cost 410 million euros and was financed by OL Groupe. Groupama Stadium offers 60,000 seats – including 6,000 VIP seats and 8,000 square meter reception areas. It is located in Décines-Charpieu, in the eastern suburbs of Lyon.

Plus, the stadium is close to three train stations (less than 30-minute trips) and two airports (less than 15 minutes). Within two hours you can travel to or from Paris by TGV, within one and a half hours you reach Geneva. We have 6,700 parking lots on site, 8,800 more on the outside with a direct bus connection. The soft mobility plan includes 500 bike parking lots on site, as well as a dedicated tram station. 50,000 square meters of solar panels (approximately 7 football pitches) are currently under construction to ultimately produce local, low-carbon electricity with a power of 12 GWh/year. We use full LED lighting in the stadium to easily operate light shows and reduce power consumption. Geothermal energy and rainwater harvesting are additional environmental developments.

STADIAWORLD: In addition to the soccer stadium, OL Valley also offers space for a leisure center, one hotel, a medical center and offices. What can you say about the location and possibilities of the stadium?
Pierrot: OL Valley is a complete offer for business events, with a 4-star hotel, a leisure center with bowling, indoor surfing, padel, escape games, a 300-seat playhouse and various restaurants. Combined with the Groupama Stadium and the next to come LDLC Arena (16,000 seats), OL Valley offers a great range of opportunities for business events and large public events.

STADIAWORLD: Groupama Stadium is the third largest soccer stadium in France. What makes the venue special from your point of view? What strengths do you outline – and what improvements are you working on?
Pierrot: Groupama Stadium is a very modern stadium equipped with the latest technologies. The venue has hosted football games, rugby games and various musical shows, Rihanna, Coldplay, Céline Dion, Rammstein, The Rolling Stones and the French band Indochine that gathered 73,000 fans last year in one single show.

Next summer, so far, 4 artists will perform (Depeche Mode, Muse, Mylène Farmer, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and a fifth will be announced very soon. The venue will host 5 games during the next Rugby World Cup and the largest number of football matches outside Paris for the next Paris 2024 Olympic games. The central situation of the stadium, the modern facilities, the easy access make the venue a strategic stadium for international events and competitions.

STADIAWORLD: The venue is the only club-owned stadium in the Ligue 1. Please explain the ownership and operational structures of the stadium.
Pierrot: The stadium is 100% private, owned by OL Groupe, which also owns the club. It’s very unique in the French system where venues often belong totally or partly to local authorities. The club is completely operating the venue with its own staff and employees. This allows real flexibility and great responsiveness on operations.

STADIAWORLD: In December 2022, Olympique Lyon confirmed the takeover by US investor John Textor. What can you tell us about that? And to what extent does this affect the operation of the stadium?
Pierrot: John Textor is the new majority shareholder of OL Groupe which includes the club and facilities such as the stadium, the professional training center, the football academy, and the future LDLC Arena. The deal provides that Jean-Michel Aulas and the current executive committee still run business operations. So, the takeover has no direct impact on daily venue operations.

STADIAWORLD: How many employees work in stadium operations? And specifically, around a match day?
Pierrot: OL Groupe has approximately 500 employees, who work in administration, business, technical and the football department. The venue also uses subcontractors on security, facility maintenance and catering. On match days, up to 2,000 additional people work in the venue on security, access as well as food and beverages.

STADIAWORLD: Please outline your strategy in the area of VIP and hospitality. What are the possibilities and capacities?
Pierrot: 10% of the capacity of the stadium is dedicated to hospitality and VIP offers, approximately 6,000 seats distributed on 2 levels with exclusive access. On the lower level, are located 7 different lounges including the President Box hosting VVIPs. Each of them proposes a different concept and specific catering. There is also a Bocuse restaurant open on match day and on weekdays for lunch. On the upper level, there are located 105 private boxes with a capacity of 12, 18 or 24 seats and 4 50-seat event boxes.

STADIAWORLD: In July 2017, Groupama, an insurance group based in Paris, became the stadium’s name sponsor. How do you evaluate the partnership?
Pierrot: The naming contract with Groupama Rhone Alpes Auvergne has been extended until July 2025. It includes the naming of the professional training center. The club has always worked closely with the partner even before the naming agreement, on sponsorship and business relations.

STADIAWORLD: Currently, the LDLC Arena, a multipurpose arena, is being built right next to Groupama Stadium. Can you give the reader more details about it? To what extent is Olympique Lyonnais – or the Groupama Stadium – involved in this?
Pierrot: This arena is again entirely financed and owned by OL Groupe. It is a complementary venue that will host musical shows and concerts but also EuroLeague basketball games, futsal, tennis, and many other indoor sport competitions. With a U concept, the capacity can adapt to various configurations, from small shows to 12,000 seat capacity on sport events, and up to 16,000 seats on concerts (retractable stands).

Our organizations teams’ experience will be duplicated on this venue that will also benefit from the access infrastructure enabled for the stadium: tramway station, stadium parking lots, etc. Built on a depolluted industrial wasteland, the LDLC Arena applies to the sustainability program: geothermal energy, LED lighting, solar panels…

STADIAWORLD: How satisfied are you with the attendance figures at Groupama Stadium?
Pierrot: 8.2 million people have attended public events since the opening of Groupama Stadium in January 2016. The average attendance this year on OL games is very good, with 46,305 fans, which is indeed the third largest average attendance of the French championship. The attendance record on an OL game is 58,230 against PSG, last September. The overall record is 73,000 fans – who attended the concert of Indochine last summer, with a central stage in the middle of the pitch that permitted to open all the stands and the floor.

STADIAWORLD: Is the Corona pandemic still an acute issue for you? What have you learned from the crisis?
Pierrot: The Corona pandemic was a real hindering for social and economic activities. Our activities stopped brutally and remained limited by attendance gauges for several months after the crisis. We implemented new strict sanitary restrictions and health rules, that were quite well accepted by our public. To help this happen, the stadium was also used as a public vaccination center in a partnership with the authorities that lasted from April 2021 to February 2022: More than 350,000 doses have been distributed during this period.

STADIAWORLD: The Groupama Stadium is preparing to become an Olympic venue that will host several matches of the men’s and women’s soccer tournaments of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. How are the preparations going?
Pierrot: We already have regular meetings with the Paris 2024 organization staff. Tony Estanguet, the president of the Organization Committee visited the stadium mid-January. The Groupama Stadium will host games from both men’s and women’s tournaments and will be the stadium outside of Paris with the biggest number of matches, 11 as a total including a women’s semifinal. (STADIAWORLD, 28.02.2023)