Not even officially open to the public yet and already on the verge of being sold. This is the strange fate of the LDLC Arena in Décines, located near the Groupama Stadium, which will host its first event this Thursday. At 8 p.m., Tony Parker’s Asvel will welcome Bayern Munich in the Euroleague, before shows by Florence Foresti (November 28), Lomepal (December 1) and Sting take place in this 12,000 to 16,000-seat venue. (December 13). “It’s the room of tomorrow, and it’s going to be one of the most beautiful in the world,” insists the former Spurs playmaker, who sees this OL Groupe property as “the culmination of a decade » to the presidency of Asvel.
An enthusiasm shared by Jean-Michel Aulas, in September 2022, during the installation of the first seat. Except that his successor John Textor therefore intends to part with this LDLC Arena as quickly as possible, the overall construction cost of which amounted to 141 million euros. The American owner of Olympique Lyonnais made this choice on September 27, in the Financial Times, announcing that he wanted to “reduce physical activities that are too heavy and non-essential to concentrate on football”. But why does this multifunction room intended to host between 80 and 120 events per year (including 13 Asvel Euroleague matches) seem to be seen as a burden by the boss of Eagle Football?
The women’s section of OL and OL Reign also sold soon
According to Matthew Llorca, lecturer in economics at the University of Burgundy, this decision is clearly linked to the delicate economic situation of OL, which communicated on November 8 a preliminary agreement on a refinancing of its debt to the tune of 320 millions of euros. “An agency has just assigned a BBB financial rating, just two ranks above a speculative category,” explains the economist. This shows that the club is not ultra-healthy financially, and that there is a need for cash to finance the debt. This is why this LDLC Arena is going to be sold. » Just like the eight-time European champion OL women’s team (American Michele Kang) and the US franchise OL Reign, which together should bring in around 100 million euros to OL Groupe.
In Lyon, John Textor is therefore ready to liquidate the family jewels of the Aulas era as quickly as JMA transferred Bruno Guimaraes and Lucas Paqueta following the departure of Juninho. The deputy general director of OL in charge of Groupama Stadium and the LDLC Arena Xavier Pierrot, who spoke in September of his “pride” in seeing the Arena emerge from the ground, with a Lyon name LDLC (until 2031), can now become disillusioned like many historic leaders of OL. Because this arena project launched in 2019, which is accompanied by a very long-term contract with the show organizer Live Nation, did not convince John Textor, unlike Tony Parker.
Tony Parker confident to buy the room
“I am really happy to welcome you today”, said during the press visit on September 22 at the LDLC Arena “TP”, whose club needed a room with more than 10,000 seats to register sustainably in the Euroleague. Praising then “the win-win of working hand in hand with the OL teams”, it could quickly be more than the president of the resident club. The one who dreams of organizing a men’s and women’s Euroleague Final Four in Décines, an Asvel-Spurs match with Victor Wembanyama but also… concerts by Jay-Z and Beyoncé, has confirmed his intentions to acquire 100% of the LDLC Arena Wednesday in Progress : “The purchase of the room is well underway. There are several shareholders and partners who want to create a group to buy it back.”
A group including Alexeï Fedorychev, president of AS Monaco basketball and founder, via his company Fedcom, of the basketball broadcast platform Skweek, jersey sponsor of Asvel. He will also be present this Thursday for this great premiere at the LDLC Arena, unlike John Textor. A symbolic absence for such an inauguration, and the sign of a lack of interest on his part for the prospects even outside of basketball of the most modern French arena? And this less than a year after the formalization of the takeover of power of the owner of Botafogo and Molenbeek in Lyon, which we thought was precisely guided by the great diversification of OL.
OL could rent the LDLC Arena for shows
“Due to its capacity (59,000 seats), there will be much more ticket revenue with the Groupama Stadium, which generated 37.7 million euros last season [et qui accueillera deux concerts de Taylor Swift et trois de Coldplay en juin 2024], recalls Matthieu Llorca. But French basketball is a small market. Hence the interest in selling this venue, even if we can imagine agreements for a Groupama Stadium-LDLC Arena synergy in terms of shows and corporate events with the future owners. »
We could in fact turn to a sale-leaseback transaction (sale and leaseback in the language of John Textor), to allow OL Groupe to continue to use its LDLC Arena asset, but on a rental basis. Matthieu Llorca points out “the multi-ownership” of the Eagle Football galaxy, which induces “almost a multinational firm strategy”.
What is surprising is the timing: the LDLC Arena has barely come out of the ground when it is already being sold without giving the product a chance. John Textor thinks like a short-term investor, whereas an arena is obviously a project to last and make you less dependent on sporting performances. Olympique Lyonnais was renowned for its stability with Jean-Michel Aulas. However, today we have a big governance problem at the club at both a financial and sporting level. »
“Eagle Football has no interest in separating from the stadium”
The president of the metropolis of Lyon Bruno Bernard (EELV) had also described, last month, John Textor’s policy as “illegible”. While a major meeting will be played next Tuesday for OL against the DNCG after its summer hiccup, the main curiosity will be to see how the money soon recovered in the OL feminine-OL Reign-LDLC Arena triptych will really go be reinjected. THE Financial Times explained in September that Eagle Football wanted to use part of this future sale of the LDLC Arena to “develop football academies”. Matthieu Llorca sums it up as follows: “We feel a real repositioning of the club, which intends to bet everything on football”. 100% male football in this case.
Finally, could a sale of Groupama Stadium not be the final stage of the total break with the 35 years of Jean-Michel Aulas’s reign? “No, Eagle Football has no interest in getting rid of the stadium,” says Matthieu Llorca. Despite the current poor sporting results [l’OL est 20e en Ligue 1], there are huge ticket revenues and club turnover on the rise. This private stadium is the heart of the Textor project. » Far, very far from this first Euroleague evening in history for Asvel in its new setting.