Panels, seats, pieces of lawn and all kinds of trophies that can be used as souvenirs. Nîmes Olympiques supporters left with their hands full from the Costières stadium, scheduled for demolition in the coming weeks. Nîmes dominated Bordeaux (1-0) on Saturday in Ligue 2 and the trophies brought back like so many memories have since flourished on social networks.
This last victory marks the end of this stadium which perhaps holds a record for speed between its delivery (1989) and its demolition (2022). Thirty-three and a half years is not much for a speaker of this importance. Enough to have marked the supporters with some memorable memories, the highlight of which will remain the victory against neighboring Montpellier in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France on April 14, 1996, while the Crocos played in National (the third division) . The current Costières stadium, built by the Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti had cost the equivalent of 24 million euros (160 million francs at the time), financed by public funds.
In Place des Costières, another stadium and a vast commercial and real estate project
The town hall sold it in 2019 to Rani Assaf for 8 million euros. The president of Nîmes Olympique will rebuild in the same place (but in the other direction), a stadium, backed by a commercial and real estate project, for an estimated amount of 250 million euros. The project provides for the hosting of a business center, a higher education school, two hotels and numerous shops. A thousand inhabitants should live in this future district that has emerged from the ground. “The money that we release for the neighborhood next to the stadium will pay for the new stadium,” summed up Rani Assaf when presenting his project.
Until the delivery of the future complex, the Nîmes Olympique will evolve in a temporary enclosure of 9,300 places in the heart of the ZAC Mas de Vignoles. Nîmes is to welcome Guingamp there on December 26. “Being ephemeral, the stadium, built without deep foundations, will then be dismantled to restore the site to its initial state,” explains the city. The temporary stands (financed by Rani Assaf’s holding company) will then be sold to the city. The future Costières stadium, with a capacity reduced to 15,100 seats, must be delivered in 2026.