The Allianz Riviera is better, thank you. Weighed down by the health crisis, deprived in particular of revenue from matches canceled at the height of the pandemic, the company Nice Eco stadium (NES), which manages the stadium in the plain of Var, was able to begin to clean up its finances. And the safeguard procedure that she herself requested eighteen months ago, on May 6, 2021, to suspend the payment of her debts, is now closed.
The decision has just been handed down: “the Nice commercial court approved by judgment of November 3, 2022 the proposed safeguard plan”, announces to 20 minutes Me Christophe Thévenot, the judicial administrator who had been appointed to assist the bosses of the arena. “Things are obviously better than two years ago. Activity has resumed and we have a sustained program of conferences and seminars. Even if all this does not erase these Covid years, ”underlines Patrick Florence, the general manager of NES. So to get back on track, the company decided to further diversify the activities of the stadium, which even becomes… a coworking center.
Computers instead of glasses of champagne
A few days ago, one of the leaders in flexible office spaces moved into the boxes of the Ségurane tribune. Once the trays of petit fours and the glasses of champagne have been put away, between two matches, these spaces can accommodate computers. “We had already fitted out offices at the Stade de France, but using the already existing spaces of a sports complex is a first, says Christophe Burckart, the general manager of IWG France. We already had six centers between Nice and Sophia-Antipolis, but nothing yet in the Var plain which is developing a lot. »
A first project, three years ago, with square meters entirely dedicated to IWG, did not convince NES. “But with the Covid-19, and the relationship to the workplace which has changed a little, we have been working on this new concept”, adds Patrick Florence. A solution that is simpler to set up and less restrictive for the stadium. “We just added a small office infrastructure and slightly more comfortable furniture for working that just needs to be moved when the dressing rooms become hospitality spaces again, on weekends, for the matches”, specifies Christophe Burckart.
“Any opportunity to generate revenue can be taken”
For this launch, 860 m2 of these now modular spaces were used to create 80 workstations for rent, parking included, “and we’ll see if we want to go further,” says the boss of IWG France. NES is ready to share its other boxes in the Garibaldi stand if the mayonnaise takes. “It’s not going to change the company’s economy, but any opportunity to generate revenue can be good to take,” says Patrick Florence.
For the company, this is in any case good news after four years of negative results: -1.78 million euros in 2018, -1.5 in 2019 and even, due to Covid-19, -2.2 in 2020 and -2.18 last year. It does not happen alone: another aspect of the activity of the stadium should take a serious boost. That of mega-concerts, after the very poor programming of the first eight years of operation of the Allianz Riviera which (only) hosted (only) Celine Dion, in 2017, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z, in 2018.
“We will have Mylène Farmer on July 29, 2023, for her last date in France. But we also have to announce another international star on July 20 and there is still another option at the beginning of the month”, teases the general manager of Nice Eco stadium, more than ever “reassured” and “motivated”.