The Stade de France (English translation "Stadium of France" – not used) is a stadium in metropolitan Paris, and the national stadium of France, built for the 1998 Football World Cup. It hosted France's greatest sporting triumph to date--the 3-0 victory over Brazil in the World Cup final on July 12, 1998.
The stadium replaced the Parc des Princes as the national stadium and has a capacity of about 80,000. The stadium is in the suburb of Saint-Denis, and well served by transport links (RER B etc.). Both the French football team and the French rugby team play there and will serve as the site of the 2006 UEFA Champions League final, an honour that has been done once before in 2000. The stadium was the centrepiece for Paris' failed 2012 Summer Olympics bid.
The Stade de France has no "resident" team and sits empty most of the time at considerable expense to the French taxpayer. Repeated attempts to convince a professional football or rugby team to move there have failed so far. Paris Saint-Germain is the only local team that could draw crowds large enough for the Stade de France but has decided to stay put at its present Parc des Princes home under pressure from its parent company (pay-TV network Canal Plus) and the Paris city government. Given the current rugby and football landscape in the Paris area, it is unlikely that any other team will develop a large enough fan base to make the Stade de France a viable home within the next ten years.
With that being said, the stadium will see a large revenue increase as it will be used extensively during the highly anticipated 2007 Rugby World Cup in France where it will hosts numerous pool matches, a quarterfinal match, both of the semi finals and the final.
The Lille OSC football team will play all its Champions League "home" games at the Stade de France in 2005-06 because its own stadium is currently under renovation and there is no nearer alternative on French soil.
It is important to note that the word "France" in Stade de France does not refer to the country France, but it refers to an area (pays) of the historical province of Île de France known as pays de France. Île-de-France was made up of several pays: pays de France, Parisis, Mantois, Hurepoix, and so on. Pays de France was the extremely fertile plain located immediately north of the city of Paris, with the city of Saint-Denis at its centre. Pays de France is now almost entirely built-up, being covered by the northern suburbs of Paris. Pays de France is also known as the plaine de France ("plain of France"), and the name of this old pays still appears in the name of some towns in the northern suburbs of Paris, such as Roissy-en-France (which means "Roissy in the pays de France"). Thus, the name of the stadium was chosen to give it a local touch, as it is located in the plaine de France, but of course most people are not aware of this fact, and assume it is the stadium of the country France.
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