There are few people to appreciate the Coupe de la Ligue, this calendar overload, this trophy "bis" or rather "ter", behind the championship and the Coupe de France. Very few people. Except at Le Mans Football Club. Here, collector's scarves have been sold for five days, and the city’s billboards are a reminder of the upcoming event: a round of 16 against Paris-Saint-Germain, Wednesday December 18 (from 9:05 p.m.).
For entry tickets, count no more: the club received 75,000 requests, for a stadium with a "commercial capacity" of 24,478 seats. New attendance record to come. The precedent dates back to … the inauguration of MMArena; three scintillating letters outside the compound, for which Mutuelles du Mans Assurances paid.
Eight years ago, 24,375 spectators watched the second division game against AC Ajaccio. Eight years later, since this season, the Sarthois club has returned to the second division, in 18th and antepenultimate place in Ligue 2.
In the meantime ? Neither more nor less than the death of a professional club, and its return to life: sports underperformance, administrative demotion, and bankruptcy (2013), when the former president, Henri Legarda, was turning the club beyond its means; then restart at the sixth national level.
The stadium, however ultramodern, already bears witness to another era. The one where the Professional Football League (LFP) pushed to excess, inviting club leaders to build ever larger enclosures. In this case: rather than renovating the old Léon-Bollée (17,000 seats) in the city center, you might as well build a new stadium eleven tram stations from the station.
"Christmas Match"
result: "A new oversized stadium", considers the economist Jean-Pascal Gayant, professor at the University of Le Mans and collaborator of the World. "The perversion of the system", now questioned, consisted of "Want to make big, even very big. "
It was after the report of Eric Besson, then secretary of state for prospective and evaluation of public policies: a text supposed to increase " competitiveness " French clubs and encourage the use of public-private partnerships (PPP). Here between the socialist town hall of Le Mans and the concessionaire Le Mans Stadium, a subsidiary of the Vinci group, operating for a period of 33 years.
The prefecture of Sarthe has 142,000 inhabitants. It is little, for such a stadium, with the risk that it sounds those. The club has averaged 8,993 spectators this season for Ligue 2 games, the fourth highest attendance in the division despite a occupancy rate of just 36%.
Friday, December 13, the club claimed more than 17,900 spectators against Orleans … including 10,000 invited children. Le Mans victory (3-2) in extremis in this "Christmas match": an operation by Thierry Gomez, president of Le Mans FC for three years, to fill the stadium. And never mind if he exceeded the maximum number of invitations allowed (7,000 invitations) in the stadium provision agreement, according to the appendix of a municipal deliberation that The world has consulted.
Human table football, climbing area, bowling alley with a soccer ball: activities organized since the end of the afternoon, this Friday, to keep young audiences and encourage them to come back.
The stadium’s economic model remains in deficit (6 million euros) despite the organization of side events. To occupy the venue this season, Le Mans FC pays the dealer rent: a minimum of 500,000 euros, not counting additional costs depending on the size of the match. Last season, it was a little less: some 320,000 euros all the same, then at the expense of the town hall, to organize matches in the third division.
This year the city is also paying an additional 2.3 million euros. The sum includes both a fixed annual contribution and a so-called sports hazard clause; device in force as long as the club does not replay in the first division championship, which it left in 2010, a few months before the opening of the "Arena". "The stadium's business plan was first thought of for a first division club", explains Yannick Hoinville, general manager of the Le Mans Stadium dealership.
"A great car in a garage"
Contacted by The world, the municipality did not answer about this stadium, the construction of which will have cost 104 million euros (almost half by the subsidies of local communities). Perhaps complicated for Stéphane Le Foll: the former minister replaced the late Jean-Claude Boulard at the town hall and intends to keep his post at the next municipal elections.
Against Orleans, Vincent Créhin took a yellow card for a good cause. The striker wanted to celebrate the goal of victory with the supporters of "Virage sud", behind the cages, six minutes from the last whistle. He knew the matches played "In the cold and without lighting" at La Pincenardière, the training center where the Sang et Or played their official games from 2013 to 2016. "At the club, we felt a little frustrated, admits Créhin, as if we had a great car in the garage and we couldn't use it! "In our locker room, upon my arrival, I posted a photo of the MMArena to give us the objective that the club return there as soon as possible", says Richard Déziré, trainer for four years, for already three successive climbs.
"I had the keys to Léon-Bollée"
From the old Léon-Bollée stadium to MMArena, seven kilometers on foot. The supporters of Le Mans accepted the move with "A pinch in the heart", remembers Clément Coulon, co-president of Support’r Club. "We lost our bearings, I had the keys to Léon-Bollée, our office was below the presidential platform. Today, his group found refuge under a barnum near the MMArena … on the condition of crossing a departmental road.
"We remain attached to the old stadium", specifies Anthony Archenault, president of the supporters associations of the Virage sud. The proof, this song that we could still distinguish Friday, December 13 against Orleans: "Go Le Mans, go!" From the Léon-Bollée stadium, fervor will rise! " Precision of the same supporter: “Each year, our general assembly is held in a room lent to us by the town hall, at the foot of Léon-Bollée. But I avoid watching what becomes of the stadium. " Fallow land for eight years, and still promised demolition to grow homes.
The public also tolerated naming, the commercial process of selling the brand new stadium name to MMA (until 2021). "Because MMA come from Le Mans", underlines Clément Coulon; just like automaker Léon Bollée, by the way. "We asked our members what they thought about it: they said okay, but on condition that we avoid saying 'MMA' in our songs", adds Anthony Archenault.
A point of no return, however: the latter persists in talking about the “MUC 72”, for Mans Union Club. This former name (1985-2010) refers to the previous merger between the Le Mans Sports Union and the Maine Olympic Stadium. If the club is now called "Le Mans FC", it is for a simple reason, and today paltry: the desire to facilitate its recognition abroad, in the distant days of Ligue 1.
