Stade Geoffroy Guichard

To think that originally it was just a plot of land bought by Geoffroy Guichard, founder of the Casino supermarket chain, who wanted to build a stadium for his works team. lt was inaugurated in 1931 and featured an athletics track and a 1,000 seater stand. In the 1960s and 70s the workers from the steelworks next door would climb onto the roof of their building to watch the matches. The stands in those days were lower than they are now, which enabled these clandestine spectators to watch the games from their place of work! With total disregard for their own safety, mind you. Gradually, as the resident club met with more and more success, the stadium was altered and extended to reach a capacity of 35,616 seats in 1998. And the upgrade carried out so that it could host Euro 2016 games took the stadium's capacity to 42,000! Does that figure mean anything to you? It should, it's a nod to the city's postcode. Today, the stadium is a model of innovation. The stadium's lighting will soon be running on used cooking oil. The project involves a generator set that runs on biofuel. This is a fuel produced by reprocessing domestic food oils - cooking oil in particular – collected in the Saint-Étienne district. The Geoffroy-Guichard stadium also has on its roof one of the largest photovoltaic power plants on a French stadium. Who said you can't combine a passion for soccer and an eco-friendly attitude? For more anecdotes and secrets, come and visit this mythical stadium and its museum!

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