UEFA The Parc des Princes (translation: Princes' Park) is a 48,712-seat 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 FIFA World Cup. The stadium and grounds are owned by the City of Paris. The name Parc des Princes was given to the surrounding area during the 18th century, when it was a forest used by the royal family for hunting.
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, which opened in 1897 and 1932, respectively. Both were essentially velodromes, and for many years (1904–1967) the stadium was the traditional finishing point for the Tour de France cycling race. 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 114,000. Whether this plan has the approval of the Paris city council was unclear as of mid-April 2006.
The football club Racing Club de Paris played its home games at the Parc des Princes from 1984 to 1990. The rugby union club Stade Français competes across the road at the much smaller Stade Jean Bouin, but sometimes uses the Parc des Princes.
The modern 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 a major disappointment for the national football team in 1993, when Les Bleus were beaten 1-2 by Bulgaria and failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States. At the 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.
Parc des Princes also hosted various 2007 Rugby World Cup matches including the Argentina and Ireland showdown.
The second Parc des Princes hosted the final of the inaugural Rugby League World Cup in 1954, when Great Britain defeated France 16–12.