British firm Populous selected for the renovation of the Meinau stadium in Strasbourg

"Populous is an English firm, it is a major player known throughout the world for the realization of its stages", underlined the former French international. "We are very proud that the Meinau is added to its achievements. It will enter a new era but it will remain the Meinau, a stadium with the atmosphere you know. The stadium of tomorrow with the atmosphere of today. hui. "

Populous has notably worked on the stadiums of Tottenham, Arsenal (Emirates Stadium), Fulham, Manchester City (Etihad Stadium) and has renovated Wembley. He also built the Groupama Stadium in Lyon.

This renovation and extension of the emblematic Strasbourg city wall will cost 100 million euros, financed by the Eurometropolis (50 M EUR), the region (25 M EUR), the city (12,5 M EUR) and the department (12,5 , XNUMX M EUR).

The club, for its part, spent EUR 10 million on major work on the professional team's training center, and EUR 15 million on its training center.

Airbus A340 fuselage

Racing had received 45 applications and five architectural firms had been selected at the start of last year as finalists. Populous was chosen by a jury comprising members of the club and communities.

The mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian (EELV) insisted on the quality of the selected project, "sober, exemplary, of which we can collectively be proud".

The elected ecologist underlined "the exemplary environmental nature" of the project, which includes "nearly 1.000 m2 of solar panels, the collection of rainwater and the recovery of materials to dress the facade".

One of the architects thus specified that among the recovered materials, pieces of the fuselage of an Airbus A340 will be used as a "sunscreen" on the south facade.

François Clément, of the Populous firm, insisted on the future proximity of spectators to the lawn, "à l'anglaise", and on the fan zone, which will be "a real village square, with wooden structures and spaces. vegetated ".

For the president of the Grand Est region, Jean Rottner (LR), this announcement is "a strong economic sign". "We could have asked ourselves whether we should continue this project, given the circumstances, but we made the choice to continue, it's important, it shows that we have confidence".

"Racing is the DNA of Alsace", he continued, noting that with the atmosphere of Meinau, the fan zone will become "the largest winstub (Alsatian tavern, note) in the world: we comes there before the match, we stay there after the match, it's all the friendliness of Alsace ".

The president of the Eurometropolis Pia Imbs (without label but close to environmentalists) noted that she would ensure "that there are no budgetary slippages or in the delivery times".

Work is due to begin in mid-2022 for delivery of the new enclosure in summer 2025.