On May 5, Stade Toulousain will host the English side Harlequins in a sold-out Stadium. The 33,000 seats for this Champions Cup semi-final were sold last Thursday in just twenty minutes. “It’s an event that unleashed the crowds,” said President Didier Lacroix this Friday in a lounge at the Ernest-Wallon stadium, in front of around twenty journalists. There were up to 60,000 instant connections and 800,000 connection requests. I don’t know how big a stadium we would have needed. »
The large Toulouse municipal enclosure, usual den of TFC footballers, will also host the rugby players for the Top 14 clash against La Rochelle on June 2. Two other championship matches are scheduled at Ernest-Wallon, the “house” of the Rouge et Noir (19,000 seats) of which the association “Les Amis du Stade”, closely linked to the club, is the owner: Saturday against Racing 92 and May 12 against Stade Français. Two more popular hits.
“We can say that Stade Toulousain will certainly have a full season at home with packed stadiums,” says Lacroix. No need to have a brain as well irrigated as that of Thomas Pesquet, ambassador of the club, to make the observation: Ernest-Wallon has become too small for the leader of French and European rugby who, after a dip in the heart of the 2010s , won three Brennus Shields (2019, 2021, 2023) and a European Cup (2021).
Two large stadiums in Toulouse, a sweet dream
“In my opinion, we need a stadium for 60,000 people and another for 30,000 in Toulouse, but I am neither mayor, nor president of the Departmental Council nor president of the Regional Council,” the stadium president half-jokes. Lyon, Bordeaux, Paris have two. » He admits it himself: this pious wish could only be granted in a world without financial constraints (or in a Gulf country, which amounts to almost the same thing). While waiting to see the Stadium, perhaps one day, double its capacity, the project concerns Ernest-Wallon, which Lacroix would like to see increase to “25,000 [places] plus or minus 10%.
On April 4, Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and president of the Metropolis, formalized his support “to the tune of 20 million euros” for “this structuring project which will combine with the station at the foot of the stadium of the future Metro line C. The project must be completed in 2028, almost a decade after the initial announcement of a desire to expand Ernest-Wallon, at the same time as the metro will arrive in this Sept-Deniers district, now landlocked between ring road, Garonne and side canal of the river.
“For the moment, we are in technical feasibility studies, not in calls for tenders,” observes Lacroix, who hopes to see things accelerate at the start of the school year in September. “We are talking about a stadium but we really want a sports-health activation center for occupants, residents and employees,” continues the stadium manager, who recalls that his club uses its venue only “60% of the time” . The remaining 40%, Ernest-Wallon hosts schools, associations or business meetings.
Stay “oriented towards the city”
Financing is not the only problem ahead, since it is also necessary to determine the “phasing” of the work. In other words: where to start the project to penalize as little as possible, sportingly and economically, the club which will continue to play on site during this time?
Today, Ernest-Wallon, built between 1978 and 1982 a few hundred meters from the previous enclosure, destroyed to build the ring road, is increasingly showing its age.
But for Lacroix, there was never any question of leaving the historic district where the heart of his club, born in 1907, vibrates. “One of the big mistakes would be to bring a stadium to the outskirts where you no longer play. towards your city, indicates the leader. What’s great is getting there on foot or by bike. We must keep these urban stadiums with everyday life. » Hello, the Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux, the Allianz Rivera in Nice and the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, all built far from the historic center…