CATALANS DRAGONS’ commercial director, Christophe Levy, has revealed that the Super League club’s new stand is imperative to helping the French side offset the losses needed to fund each top flight club’s journey to the Stade Gilbert Brutus in 2025.
For the first time since their conception back in the mid-2000s, the Dragons will have to fund all of the other 11 Super League clubs’ flights, full-board hotel and shuttles to the stadium.
Levy told L’Independant: “The directors of these clubs have decided that the Dragons must contribute to the finances of the Super League because French TV rights are non-existent or almost non-existent.”
That will see Catalans having to face a budget expense of €500,000 to fund this – and Levy insists that the main way to do this is to attract more supporters through the doors of the Stade Gilbert Brutus which can only happen with the building of the new Guasch stand.
The Dragons will able to raise their capacity and hopefully attract more supporters, with Levy calling the building of this new stand “essential”
“We are not far from our maximum capacity,” Levy continues to L’Independant.
“The subject always comes back on the table, but the new stand is now essential. It will allow us to seat more people, create a real enclosed refreshment bar, enlarge the reception areas… We will no longer be able to do without it.”
The new stand at the Stade Gilbert Brutus was initially pencilled in for completion back in September 2024, with the delay according to the French publication, because of a disagreement between Perpignan City Hall and the Region regarding the creation of a gymnasium, which is obstructing the call for tenders and demolition of the stand.
The new hope is that the construction will be completed by September 2025.
