Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, which notably brings together the Brittany and South-West federations of Crédit Mutuel, announced on Wednesday its financial support for the project for a new football stadium in Brest, which will bear the name of the bank.
“For us, it’s obvious and a strong commitment,” said Julien Carmona, president of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, during a press conference at the bank’s headquarters in the Brest conurbation.
The mutual cooperative bank, which has already given its name to a stand at the Francis Le Blé stadium in Brest since 2010, is committed for the first eight years to the new stadium which will be called “Arkéa Stade or something else”, indicated M Carmona, without specifying the financial amount involved, calling it only “consequent”.
Denis and Gérard Le Saint, owners of Stade Brest, welcomed “great news”.
“With Arkéa, we share the same values,” assured Denis Le Saint.
At an estimated cost of 106.5 million euros, this new 15,000-seat stadium is to be built by 2027 on 17 hectares of agricultural land in Guipavas, on the edge of the Brest agglomeration.
It must be financed up to 25%, or 27 million euros, by public funds provided in particular by the metropolis of Brest and the region of Brittany.
“The departmental council supports this new stadium project at 150% (…) without any form of ambiguity or reserve”, assured the president of the department of Finistère Maël de Calan, without specifying the amount of financial support from the department. .
The Francis Le Blé stadium, where the club is currently playing in the heart of Brest, no longer meets the standards of professional football.
The new stadium project is criticized by Brest environmentalists, who believe that it is a “project from another time”, “useless and climaticidal” and plead for the renovation of the current stadium.
“Every time we build something, we have a negative impact on the environment. We assume it, we know it, ”acknowledged Mr. Carmona, while Arkéa publishes its environmental and social footprint each year.
“These are not easy subjects (…) There, we consider that the balance is very largely positive”, he however estimated.
Founded in 1950, Stade Brestois entered the elite for the first time in 1979 but experienced several relegations. Reassembled in 2019, it has struggled to maintain itself in recent seasons.