Opinion – Stay or go: PSG must finally decide where it's headed | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain still has to choose between the Parc des Princes, Poissy and Massy for its future stadium, with new meetings scheduled for October and an inauguration target that could stretch all the way to 2035, according to L’Équipe. Nine years. At that distance, it is hard to sketch out the stands. But it is becoming just as hard to keep seeing nothing at all of the project.

A long-running saga that is starting to get really long

Things are moving, without really moving forward

The stadium issue has now been following PSG around for long enough that every new piece of information triggers more or less the same reaction: oh, something is happening. Before a few lines later revealing that nothing has actually been decided yet.

This time, though, things do seem to be moving ahead. Paris, Poissy and Massy are still being studied, new steering committee meetings are due to take place in mid-October, and the club hopes to make its choice before the end of the year. Le Parisien notably reports that expanding the Parc des Princes is indeed one of the three scenarios still being worked on. But between studying an option, favoring it and actually being able to make it happen, there are still a few ring roads to cross.

2035 is tomorrow… well, almost

The most dizzying thing is almost elsewhere: the stadium being discussed today might not exist in its new form until 2035. So nearly a decade separates the first decisions from their actual realization. That inevitably makes the current announcements difficult to comment on.

What capacity? What funding? What surroundings? What project around the stadium? Even the location remains unknown. At this stage, claiming to analyze PSG’s future stadium in detail would be closer to crystal-ball gazing than journalism.

The secrecy of negotiations does not require silence about the overall direction

PSG is inevitably walking on eggshells

One thing must of course be acknowledged about PSG: this is not a game of Football Manager. Between ownership of the Parc, discussions with the City of Paris, technical studies, available land, transport links, possible legal appeals and the necessary investment, the club cannot announce a final project before securing its foundations.

The Parc itself perfectly illustrates that complexity. After several years of deadlock, talks have resumed with the City of Paris, and the possibility of a sale as well as different expansion scenarios are once again being studied. So a few months could completely reshuffle the deck.

But the general direction can already be explained

There is, however, a difference between not being able to unveil a finalized project and leaving everyone around the club in long-term uncertainty about the overall direction. PSG could gradually explain what it is looking for.

Why does it need a new stadium or a deeply transformed Parc? How far can the current stadium meet its ambitions? What conditions would make a move necessary? And above all, what place does the club intend to give its fans in this transformation?

What supporters are waiting for today is not so much architects’ plans as a clear roadmap.

A stadium is not chosen with a calculator alone

Staying is not necessarily the easy option

Because behind the questions of capacity and revenue lies something much harder to quantify. Leaving the Parc des Princes would probably be one of the most important decisions in the club’s modern history. Staying, on the other hand, would require finding a formula that allows PSG to develop its stadium enough not to simply preserve its past at the expense of its future.

So there is no obvious solution. Treating the Parc as sacred to the point of forbidding any reflection would be just as simplistic as assuming that a 70,000- or 80,000-seat stadium automatically solves everything because it has more seats, boxes and restaurants.

Supporters cannot be left to discover the project at the end

And the supporters? Some would probably follow PSG anywhere. Others would feel that leaving the capital or the Parc would represent a break they do not want to go along with. No one can decide that for them.

Precisely for that reason: the heavier the choice, the more it will need to be explained rather than simply unveiled once everything is wrapped up. This project does not concern only the executives, architects or public authorities. It also involves the club’s identity and the way its supporters see themselves alongside it.

2035 is far enough away to give PSG time to build a stadium. That is no reason to wait nine years before building support around it. Concrete can wait. Trust, much less so.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.