Parc des Princes

The Parc des Princes was originally a velodrome, the finish of the Tour de France from its start in 1903 until the track's demolition. It is now a 48,712-seat stadium in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the home of football team Paris Saint Germain and was then national stadium of France until the Stade de France was built for the 1998 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.

In one corner of the 19th-century Parc des Princes was a laboratory. That was demolished in 1897 and the site became a sports stadium. It was so badly built at the time that spectators were denied access to the stands when it opened. There were fears that the stands would collapse from the weight of spectators.
The current Parc des Princes, designed by Roger Taillibert and built by Bouygues, was opened in 1972 and is a true football 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.