RC Lens: "The purchase of Stade Bollaert-Delelis has been completed for over €40m" (J. Oughourlian)

"The purchase of Stade Bollaert-Delelis (Lens, Pas-de-Calais) has been completed (...) for more than €40m," declared Joseph Oughourlian, president of RC Lens (Ligue 1 McDonald's), on RMC Sport on 07/04/2025.

The club plays in the stadium (38,223 capacity), which is owned by the City of Lens under an administrative long-term lease due to expire in 2052, in return for a fixed annual rent of €400,000. With this purchase, the date of which has not been officially announced by the owner of RC Lens, the club will become the third in Ligue 1 to own its own stadium in 2024-25, alongside AJ Auxerre (Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps) and Olympique Lyonnais (Groupama Stadium).

"For obvious reasons, we don't want to be too dependent on TV rights, and we need to find other sources of revenue. Our commercial revenues have already exploded since our return to Ligue 1 (at the end of the 2019-20 season), the stadium is sold out (for the 64^th time in a row on 06/04/2025), ticket prices have risen, as have those of VIP seats, while remaining very reasonable. We want to increase the number of VIP lounges…