Paris Saint-Germain

Location

Paris, France, France

Capacity

48,229

Opened

1967

Time zone

UTC +01:00 Central European Time (CET)

The Parc des Princes (literally "Park of the Princes" or "Princes' Park" in English) is an all-seater football stadium located in the southwest of Paris, France. The venue, with a seating capacity of 48,712 spectators, has been the home of French football club Paris Saint-Germain since 1973. The current Parc des Princes was inaugurated on 4 June 1972, endowed with very avant-garde architecture for the period. Comfort and visibility were the key words of project architects Roger Taillibert and Siavash Teimouri. PSG became the resident club of the new stadium in June 1973 and its image and history has since been associated to Le Parc. Named after the Monarch's hunting grounds that it sits on, it was initially opened as a multi-purpose venue on 18 July 1897. The Parc des Princes is the fourth largest football stadium in France. Originally a velodrome, it was the finish line of the Tour de France from the first event in 1903 until General Charles de Gaulle ordered the track demolished in the late 1960s. He decided in 1967 that the Parc des Princes should be dedicated to football and rugby games with a capacity of under 60,000 seats. The Parc des Princes was the national stadium of the France football team and the France rugby union team until the construction of the Stade de France for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The stadium and grounds are owned by the Paris city council and the Société d’Exploitation Sports-Evénements (SESE) holds the concession to the Parc des Princes since 1990. Initially a multi-task sports venue at first, it has hosted many major sports events. Le Parc was an Olympic site in the 1900 Games of the II Olympiad and hosted games in two FIFA World Cups. The stadium has also been the venue for two Euro finals, three UEFA Champions League finals, two UEFA Cup finals, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final, two Latin Cup finals, four USFSA championship finals, one Coupe Sheriff Dewar final, 33 French Cup finals, three League Cup finals, 30 Tournoi de Paris editions and 31 Top 14 finals. The ground has also hosted 128 football matches for the French national team, 59 Five Nations Championships games, one UCI Track Cycling World Championships and 54 Tour de France finishes. The stadium also witnessed the first live sports report in France and has even hosted boxing championships and music concerts. In recent times, the Parc des Princes has refocused on more medium-sized events as compared to the larger Stade de France.