Project OL Land Finally Gets the Greenlight
By: Inara | October 13th, 2008It looks like the threats of Jean-Michel Aulas to quit if the city continued to deadlock Lyon’s plans for a new stadium have finally forced the city leaders into committing to Project OL Land, now scheduled to be completed on June 2013.
The agreement was signed by six parties: Olympique Lyonnais, the State, the department of the Rhone region, Grand Lyon (the greater agglomeration of Lyon), the city of Decines, and Systral (in charge of transporation in Lyon).
This new agreement now includes a clause to improve public transportation to the Decines stadium site, which was the major holdup in the original project. The details are still a big foggy, but according to L’Equipe (from what I understood from google translate), one of the routes to the stadium that was only accessible by the bus will now be accessible by a tram.
Of course, this hasn’t wiped out all opposition. Early estimates claim that at least €180m of public money will be required to finance parts of the stadium project – mostly having to do with transportation. But it’s not just the use of taxpayer money that some citizens feel could go elsewhere, it’s also the worry that a huge stadium with games every three days will cause severe traffic congestion in the Decines community and have an adverse affect on the expansion of suburbs in that region.
Furthermore, in this unhealthy economy, there are some criticisms that OL Land is too extravagant and a waste of energy and resources, especially when the Stade de Gerland remains a perfectly acceptable stadium that could be expanded if need be (though I don’t know how that would be possible because the Gerland is classified as a historical monument). But those complaints are in the minority, and for the most part, city officials support the project because a flashy stadium housing a trophy winning team with a constantly growing fanbase would mean a boon to business in the growing city of Lyon.
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