Ligue 1: Marseille sets Vélodrome rent at €380,952/match; OM say they'll "never pay such a sum"

The Marseille municipal council unilaterally set, on 30/06/2014, a per-game rent of €380,952 before taxes for Olympique de Marseille (Ligue 1) to play in the renovated Stade Vélodrome (capacity 67,500).

The city of Marseille is committed via a public-private partnership agreement to paying an annual license fee of €12m for 31 years to Arema, a subsidiary of Bouygues that is in charge of the management of the stadium. Through the per-game rent, the city will receive a minimum of €7,238,088 per season (for 19 home matches in Ligue 1), not counting matches for Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue. To this fixed per-game sum is added a variable amount based on ticket sales.

These tariffs are based on an evaluation by the regional accounting office, which estimated the rent that Olympique de Marseille should pay at €8m for 21 home matches per year. This corresponds to what Arema charges its other tenants, such as RC Toulon (rugby) and the French national rugby team, which will play Fiji at the Vélodrome on 08/11/2014.

• "It's normal that OM would pay a rent relative to their income…