Champion (of business) my brother! Despite another gloomy season for Paris Saint-Germain, enamelled by yet another pitiful elimination in the round of 16 of the Champions League, a game that borders on the ridiculous, cascading extra-sporting affairs and a falling out with its ultras, the club of the capital will have achieved at least one feat. That of becoming, according to the latest study from the Deloitte firm dated last January, the number 1 club in Europe on revenue from ticketing, ahead of the behemoths of the continent which are usually Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or Manchester United. All with a stadium with a capacity of only 47,000 seats, when the Camp Nou or Santiago Bernabu display gauges close to 100,000 seats.
It must be said that in recent years, the club has worked hard to develop what is called hospitality (the most expensive and most comfortable boxes and seats in the stadium), going from 1,500 to 4,642 seats, which today represents 10% of the Park’s capacity and nearly 50% of ticketing revenue. “The indicator that shows all the substantive work carried out by the leaders of the PSG at this level is the considerable increase in the number of employees in all commercial, marketing and ticketing activities. There has been a very thorough effort on this, it shows how much it is a fundamental strategic element in the thinking of leaders, “analyzes Ludovic Lestrelin, teacher-researcher at the University of Caen Normandy and author of the book Sociology of Supporters published by La Découverte.
See Messi as we will see the Mona Lisa
The problem is that this high society which rushes to the stadium to revel in the accelerations of the Kyks or the (rare) free kicks of Messi, between two bites of petit fours and a sip of field ‘, ended up winning other places in the Park, to the point of making this enclosure a place light years away from the boiling cauldron it was before the arrival of QSI (and the Leproux plan). In Paris as elsewhere, it is difficult to have butter and money for butter. Questioned at the exit of the stadium by the independent media Canal Supporter, at the beginning of May, a fan sums up perfectly what they are more and more numerous to denounce.
“The Parc des Princes has become Disneyland. 3/4 of the people don’t give a fuck, they’re here with their Tiger jersey, they come to take pictures of Messi, they have nothing to beat PSG, it disgusts me more and more. I’ve been in the same gallery for ten years and the more the years pass, the more people arrive late, they leave before half-time to go eat. We are no longer in a football stadium, it has become an open-air museum. »
From our little personal experience, it is difficult to prove this supporter wrong. It is enough to stroll around the Park a few hours before the matches to realize the sociological transformation of the public in recent years. Difficult to walk two meters without hearing the majority of Spanish, English, Chinese or Japanese spoken. We now come to the Park to see Messi and Mbappé as we go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. Because it looks good. Supporting Paris Saint-Germain is no longer a prerequisite today.
“People come to see a show…”
“It’s still nice to come to the Park even if we are not concerned by the match, told us Charles and Alexandre, two Rennes supporters living in Paris, before the reception of Lens. Especially for a high-stakes game like this. And then Paris, well, even if it’s not famous this year, there’s always Mbappé and Messi. CQFD. “Today people come to see a show, laments this influential member of the Collectif Ultras Paris. Whether PSG wins or not, sometimes you have the impression that if Messi scores a goal, that’s enough to make them happy. »
Crossed a few meters further, Paul came to transmit the passion of the club to his son. Of the month he tries. “For the moment he is more for Mbappé than for Paris but it will come! But it’s not as easy as before to fall in love with the Park. When I was younger, the days of Weah, Rai, it was hot here. I miss it… “.
“The composition of the public is in a way in the hands of senior leaders, explains Ludovic Lestrelin. Paris Saint-Germain rushed down the path to stardom, with an ultra-offensive marketing policy, the desire to build a global brand, the leaders never hid it and today the Parc des Princes n is just the reflection of it all. »
Due to a lack of places at affordable prices, the working classes from the Paris region no longer really have a voice. A problem accentuated in recent years by the ticket resale system on the Ticketplace platform, which has caused prices to explode on the secondary market. On arrival, this heterogeneous and mostly well-to-do audience no longer seems driven by the same passion as its ancestors, which is inevitably felt from the point of view of the atmosphere.
Auteuil not spared by the Ticketplace effect
While some small groups have tried to bring the Boulogne stand back to life in recent seasons, the club has made it clear to them that it was not the right place to hang out. “The park is horrible, apart from Auteuil it has become a stadium for tourists, tells us David, 22 years old on the stand at the counter. In Boulogne, I don’t tell you about it, we don’t have the same neighbors from one match to another because of Ticketplace and ticket resales. You can’t ask tourists to sing.
If the ultras of the CUP, massed in the Auteuil bend, still manage to set fire to the stadium, they regularly suffer numerous criticisms from historical supporters who have deserted the enclosure since the implementation of the Leproux Plan. Because, there too, Ticketplace is wreaking havoc.
The last time, I came across a group of around forty Asian tourists near the stadium, and half an hour later I realized that they were twenty meters from us on the Auteuil bend! member of the Ultras Paris Collective. To make the shift live, we need active supporters, guys who know the chants and ultra codes, which isn’t always the case lately. This is why we partly denounce the Ticketplace system, we would like to put limits on it by establishing a price cap. I understand that the club needs to attract tourists because it brings money back into the coffers, but that must not be done only to the detriment of historical supporters and the working classes. »
Saturday evening, against Ajaccio, the atmosphere is still in danger of taking a new blow in the tiles, the CUP having decided to strike encouragement until further notice to protest against the lack of involvement of the players and the lack of consideration. from management. But as long as the hospitality is shielded, the PSG should accommodate it.