Parc des Princes

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The Parc des Princes (translation: Princes' Park) is a 48,527-capacity stadium in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the home of football team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and was the national stadium of France until the Stade de France was built for the 1998 Football World Cup. The stadium and grounds are owned by the City of Paris.

The current Parc des Princes, designed by architect Roger Taillibert, was opened in June 1972 and is a true football/rugby stadium with no track around the pitch. There have been two previous stadia on the site, opened respectively 1897 and 1932, both essentially velodromes. Taillibert's all-seater design has proven in retrospect to be well ahead of its time, requiring only cosmetic improvements to meet vastly increased comfort and safety regulations through the 1990s and early 2000s. Having acquired PSG on April 10, 2006, the international real estate investment firm Colony Capital has announced a plan to upgrade the Parc des Princes, including the building of luxury amenities and a capacity expansion to 54,000. Whether this plan has the approval of the Paris city council is unclear as of mid-April 2006.

The rugby union club Racing Club de France played its home games at the Parc des Princes from 1984 to 1990. Another rugby union club, Stade Français, play across the road at the Stade Jean Bouin, a smaller venue that better fits its attendance.

The Parc des Princes hosted one of France's greatest football achievements, the 2-0 victory over Spain in the 1984 European Championship final. It also hosted the biggest disappointment of the French national football team on November 17, 1993, when Les Bleus were beaten 1-2 by Bulgaria with a 90th minute goal by Emil Kostadinov and failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA. At club level, the Parc des Princes has been the scene of some of Paris Saint-Germain's most memorable European Cup games, in particular a 4-1 victory over Real Madrid in 1993 in which PSG scored the qualifying goal on the very last play of the game.

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