Laurent Marti: “The history of the UBB is written in Chaban. Matmut is a football stadium, it is the Girondins stadium”

Resident club or not, the Girondins de Bordeaux will once again occupy the Matmut Atlantique this season. But given what is happening in terms of sport in Bordeaux, the descent of FCGB into the fourth division and, contrary to the rise in power of Union Bordeaux Bègles, UBB should logically be the club sized for the Bordeaux-Lac stadium. Yes, but no.

For Actu Bordeaux, the president of UBB, Laurent Martiwho fills the Chaban Delmas stadium every two weeks, explained that this would not be the case, and that a match during the season – generally against Stade Toulousain – will once again be the option considered. “We know that Matmut has recurring deficits so we play the game with SBA and the Métropole for a match, but we could do without it. We are not asking, it’s just to play it collectively.”

Because yes, the revenues are better, but on the scale of a season, that is not what will change anything for the rugby club. But more than the financial side, it is also and above all that the UBB has appropriated the Chaban Delmas stadium, making its supporters the best public in Europe for many seasons.

“Relocating your team’s meetings to Matmut presents more financial risks than advantages. In 2016, we signed a three-year contract for three games per season, and I lost a lot of money because we ended up only having 25,000 spectators. The history of UBB has been written in Chaban since we were in the Top 14. It is a stadium where we have a lot of habits, where people like to go because it is very easy to access and it is what people want today. The Matmut is a football stadium, it is the Girondins stadium […] A sold-out match at the Matmut stadium, with all the partner spaces sold, generates a higher profit than what we can make in Chaban but which does not change our lives on a budget. We wouldn’t go to another dimension.”