PSG are cramped for space at the Parc des Princes. Admittedly, the capital club derives enormous income in terms of matchday revenues, which account for 21% of a projected €805.9m in 2023-24, €168m. This represents a seven-fold increase since QSI took control in 2011. With a negative visitor impact (-1%), the “capacity is at its maximum”.as noted by Christophe Lepetit, head of economic studies at the Centre de Droit et d’Économie du Sport (CDES).

“On the visitor side, PSG, which is at the maximum of what it can do, will find it difficult to do better than that. On a like-for-like basis, we’ll have to come up with new solutions to increase this visitor impact.”he notes. In other words, a bigger stadium. PSG had already come to this conclusion. The question is which stadium.

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The Parc? It was the club’s priority. The budgets are there, ready to be released. Except that PSG has no intention of investing massively to renovate a stadium it would lease. And we know it, Paris City Council, which owns the Porte de Saint-Cloud stadium, does not want to sell.. So the idea was to move, to find a 50-hectare site to build a new stadium. “One of the conditions for the future stadium is ownership. So our position hasn’t changed and today we’re continuing to work, to prospect to see all the possible options in order to have the stadium of the future for Paris Saint-Germain, which it will own.”explained Paris-SG’s new general manager, Victoriano Melero, at a press conference at Le Parc on Monday. Without quoting any figures, Paris-SG is aiming for a “significant growth” of its sales by increasing its capacity.

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To keep pace with PSG’s growth, we’ll have to find new sources of growth, and that means more capacity.

Christophe Lepetit, sports economist

Moreover, the club is aiming for a 5% increase in sales for the 2024-25 season and a return to breakeven. “within the next two seasons at the latest”.. And this despite a significant drop in TV rights. Victoriano Melero points out that “deficit was halved last season. There’s a new sporting cycle on the pitch, but this new phase extends to all levels of PSG. There are not 11 but 750 players.”he stresses.

“The Parc des Princes is a small stadium compared to its European rivals, beautiful and historic but small and over-optimized.notes Christophe Lepetit. Today, the stadium is at its maximum capacity. How can the stadium be developed to enable the club to position itself at the level of the biggest clubs? As far as the model is concerned, there’s a desire not to be a tenant but an owner, given the sums involved in the extension. What model should the stadium follow? To keep pace with PSG’s growth, we’ll have to find new sources of growth, and that means more capacity. I’m saying this in complete independence – I haven’t been commissioned by the club on this subject – but it’s a real issue. It’s a competitive disadvantage compared to the big clubs. Other clubs don’t wait. To stay at the top level, we have to support this growth, and that means developing a project around the stadium”.deciphers the economist. A project that is destined to go beyond the walls of the capital?