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Parc des sports de Marville
Full nameParc départemental des sports de Marville
Former namesParc interdépartemental des sports de Marville,
Parc des sports de La Courneuve [1]
LocationLa Courneuve, Saint-Denis
OperatorDépartement of Seine-Saint-Denis
Opened1922 [2]
Presentation-alfortville-beauvais.jpg

The Parc départemental des sports de Marville, commonly called Parc des sports de Marville or just Parc de Marville, is a public sports and leisure complex stretching across the municipalities of La Courneuve and Saint-Denis, France. Activities on offer include various football codes, beach volley, track and field, archery, sport shooting and swimming. [3]

It used be known as a "parc interdépartemental", a class of community sports parks in the Greater Paris area that are co-managed by the city of Paris proper and a neighbouring département. [1] Since 2019, the département of Seine-Saint-Denis has been managing the park on its own, and it has been renamed accordingly as a "parc départemental". [3]

Stade Marville

Stade Marville
Location51 avenue Roger-Salengro, La Courneuve, Seine-Saint-Denis, France
Capacity10,000 [5]
Surface Grass
Opened1921 (hippodrome) [4]
1932 (stadium) [4]
Tenants
Red Star F.C. (1998–2002; 2019–present)

History

The park's best known venue is the Stade Marville. It was originally envisioned as a hippodrome and then a greyhound race track, but neither activities panned out. [1] Instead the entire domain started being used for cross country races, and officially became known as Parc des sports de La Courneuve in 1922. [2] It proved popular enough that the French Athletics Federation considered moving its headquarters from Colombes to La Courneuve, before transportation concerns put a damper on the possibility. [4] The département of Seine (as it was then known) still financed an extensive makeover to remodel the main building into a bonafide sports stadium, with the new version opening in 1932. [4]

Tenants

The stadium has had a variety of short-term tenants over the years, mostly clubs from close Paris suburbs who outgrew their regular venue by ascending through the ranks of their sport.

Perhaps the most notable is Red Star F.C., a soccer club from nearby Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, which played at Marville between 1998–99 and 2001–02, originally to satisfy the requirements of Division 2, for which its usual venue Stade Bauer was unsuitable. [6] The club had long considered permanently moving some of its activities to Marville and finally followed suit in 2019, when it transferred its academy to the stadium. [7] In 2021, Red Star's professional team also started training at Stade de Marville. [6]

Another club with strong ties to the venue is the Flash de La Courneuve, a gridiron football club which has used the venue for its European Cup games. Prior to the Red Star's move, the club had expressed interest in making the stadium its main venue. [5]

Marville Swimming Pool

In 1955, a semi-permanent swimming pool was added to the park. It was replaced by a larger, permanent facility in 1975, called Piscine de Marville or sometimes Piscine de Marville Saint-Denis. [1] The building will be replaced again by a new aquatic center in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. [8]

Events

2024 Olympic Games

The Parc de Marville will host several training venues during the 2024 Summer Olympics. The new aquatic center was originally slated to host water polo competitions, but this changed and it will now only act as a training facility. [8] The park's futsal hall will be used for judo training, [9] while five pitches will be installed to accommodate rugby sevens teams. [8]

Fête de L'Humanité

Between 1960 and 1965, and again in 1971, the Parc des sports hosted the Fête de L'Humanité, one of France's major cultural festivals, sponsored by communist daily newspaper L'Humanité. [1]

National Ice Hockey Center bid

La Courneuve was a candidate city for the French Ice Hockey Federation's tentative National Ice Hockey Center in 2009, with the Parc de Marville as the likely construction site. But it was passed over in favor of what eventually became Aren'Ice in Cergy. [10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Caroux, Hélène. "Saint-Denis-La Courneuve ; Hippodrome, cynodrome, parc des sports de La Courneuve, parc interdépartemental des sports de Marville, actuellement Parc départemental des sports de Marville". patrimoine.seinesaintdenis.fr. Département de Seine-Saint-Denis. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b "L'hippodrome de La Courneuve va devenir un splendide Parc des Sports". L'Écho des sports. Paris. 4 March 1922. p. 2. L'hippodrome de La Courneuve va devenir Le Parc des sports de La Courneuve, et ses quarante hectares vont être mis à la dispositions des sociétés, des fédérations et des organisations sportives [...]
  3. ^ a b "Le parc départemental des sports de Marville". seinesaintdenis.fr. Département de Seine-Saint-Denis. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Roy, Jean-Michel; Lalande, Yann (2009). Un siècle de pratiques sportives (1906-2009). Histoire et patrimoine de La Courneuve. La Courneuve: City of La Courneuve.
  5. ^ a b Raynal, Thierry (19 April 2015). "Le stade Marville suscite les convoitises". leparisien.fr. Groupe Amaury. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Bientôt futur lieux de vie de l'équipe première, RedStar.fr vous présente l'historique Parc des sports de Marville". redstar.fr. Red Star F.C. 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  7. ^ "Inauguration de l'académie du Red Star". redstar.fr. Red Star F.C. 19 September 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Ephraïm (19 March 2019). "Marville, espace dédié à l'entraînement pour les JOP 2024". lejsd.com. Communiquer à Saint-Denis. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  9. ^ "Les Jeux à Plaine Commune". plainecommune.fr. Établissement public territorial Plaine Commune Grand Paris. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  10. ^ Branchu, Marc (24 June 2007). "AG de la FFHG". HockeyArchives. Retrieved September 13, 2021.