Inauguration of the Arena Porte de la Chapelle

“The Porte de la Chapelle is a bit in the situation of Parisian professional basketball before our arrival: it needs to be reborn, to be regenerated”, dares to AFP David Kahn, the president of the club created ex nihilo in 2018 with Eric Schwartz (majority shareholder).

From the start, the Americans had in their sights the future venue planned in Paris's bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Owned by the Paris town hall and costing 138 million euros (including 40 to 50 million paid by Solideo, the establishment responsible for the Olympic infrastructures), it will host the badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events, then the para-badminton and para-weightlifting during the Paralympic Games.

From September 15, basketball matches, concerts and events will fill this arena with 8.000 (in basketball configuration) to 9.000 seats, to which Adidas has attached its name for 2,1 million euros per year.

The Arena is "the intermediate capacity room" which was lacking in Paris according to Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy mayor.

“It turns out that it also fit with the ambitions of the basketball club”, whose American owners want to make the orange ball a stronghold in Europe.

“Cauldron effect”

For this, they need a modern room and its revenues – against an annual fee, the amount of which neither the club nor the town hall wished to communicate.

The results this season are in line with their ambitions: third budget (9,2 million euros) in the championship, however far behind the behemoths Asvel (21,1) and Monaco (27,5), Paris occupies fourth place in the ranking before hosting Saint-Quentin on Sunday (19:00 p.m.).

Two and a half years after his rise to Elite, he has his sights set on a first participation in the play-offs and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Eurocup.

It was in this second European competition that Paris played its last match on Wednesday at the Halle Georges-Carpentier, a dilapidated venue in the south of the capital.

So head north and a state-of-the-art setting, where “compactness and cauldron effect” are promised by Nicolas Dupeux, general manager of the manager Paris Entertainment Company (PEC).

At the very top of the steep stand on the west side, a "sky bar" for spectators wishing to follow the match while chatting with a drink in hand.

And around the stands, wide open boxes and lounges, including one (glass) overlooking the corridor used by the players between the locker room and the floor.

“We wanted to revolutionize the code of hospitality” says Nicolas Dupeux, also highlighting trendy street art furniture and decoration.

A niche borrowed from its creation in its communication and marketing by Paris Basketball, whose president wants “Parisian culture and urban culture to be celebrated” at the Arena.

Urban culture

In fact, part of the 26.000 m2 of the enclosure, whose partly green forecourt is open to the street, is made up of a space (opening in early 2025) designed as a place for daily life (shows, exhibitions, food court ) which opens onto a large terrace.

And two gymnasiums intended for associations, schools and clubs in this deprived district: hyper urbanized, place of tangle of the ring road, the A1 motorway and soon the CDG-Express railway viaduct, it housed a few years ago the " crack hill.”

The town hall wishes to transform this district which "concentrates the most investment on the mandate" (500 million euros) according to Emmanuel Grégoire, and must accommodate, in addition to the Arena, a university campus of 4.500 people from the start of the 2025 school year.

“The 18th arrondissement town hall wants this to remain a working-class neighborhood, there is no question of gentrification,” explained Emmanuel Grégoire.

David Kahn sees in the arrival of Paris Basketball "an opportunity to serve a population underserved in terms of cultural offerings" and promises "many tickets at affordable prices", some around 10 euros, so that "no one feels excluded" .