Stade de France Preps for Paris Olympics

This summer, it will be the site of the exploits of pole vaulter Armand Duplantis or sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, under the eye of cameras from around the world. But for the moment, only backhoe loaders are treading the Stade de France track.

Closed to major events since the fiery final of the Rugby World Cup at the end of October, the Saint-Denis stadium will only reopen its doors to crowds for the Paris Olympic Games.

An unprecedented break to allow the largest sports venue in France a major facelift.

In the giganticness of the stands with 80,000 empty seats, the workers at work in the middle of the arena under renovation are like miniature figurines. At the top of the stands, giant ephemeral screens the size of a tennis court are hoisted on scaffolding to double the available screen space.

For the Stade de France, the work in this first half of 2024 constitutes the last sprint in a long-distance race to adapt the cenacle of the 1998 Football World Cup to the very specific and specific needs of the Olympic Games, awarded in 2017 to France.

The project began in 2020, taking advantage of the forced closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Six refreshment bars for the general public have been added, the command post renovated, and the sports and architectural lighting modernized.

In the summer of 2021, the two permanent screens, one in the north bend, the other in the south bend, were replaced by new generation screens, larger by around fifty square meters but above all benefiting from new technology and better definition.

Discreetly nestled under the roof, white spheres installed by the operator Orange now provide the Stadium with 5G coverage, in addition to that already existing in 3G-4G. The stands are undergoing a thorough cleaning.