Olympic Games: France opens newly constructed Adidas Arena

The Porte de la Chapelle Arena, known as the Adidas Arena, is the only venue to be built in the centre of Paris for the Olympic Games. Designed to help change the area’s reputation for drug dealing and crime, it will have 8,000 seats and it will be used for gymnastics and badminton.

The 8,000-seat Porte de la Chapelle Arena, known as the Adidas Arena and the only venue built in the centre of Paris for the Olympic Games, opens its doors on Sunday 11 February. Located within the capital’s ring road, it is hoped that the opening will mark the success of a key part of the regeneration of one of Paris’ most deprived neighbourhoods.

At its peak in 2020, the Porte de la Chapelle area became a symbol of the French capital’s drug problem, home to the so-called “crack hill”, a meeting place for up to 300 addicts, but police have since stepped up patrols. The hill has been landscaped and planted with trees in an attempt to disperse dealers and their customers.

“In the last two months we’ve had far fewer addicts in the area because they’ve moved on,” Jean-Michel Metayer, head of the Vivre au 93 La Chapelle association, told AFP. The city of Paris has made the new arena, which will be used for gymnastics and badminton during the Games from 26 July to 11 August, a key part of its 500 million euro (£540 million) redevelopment of the area. The venue will also have additional features. These include a new park, Chapelle Charbon. A university research facility, Campus Condorcet, for up to 4,500 people will open by the end of 2025.

The facility will be called the Adidas Arena as part of a sponsorship deal with the sportswear brand. It will also be home to the ambitious Paris Basketball Club, which will play its first game in its new home on Sunday. “Porte de la Chapelle is an area that needs to be reborn, rejuvenated. I think what the city is doing with Porte de la Chapelle is fantastic. It should be applauded,” David Kahn, co-president of Paris Basketball, told AFP. 

The Games’ legacy is one of the goals of the organisers of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. They are keen to demonstrate their low-budget plan, with almost all sports taking place in existing or temporary infrastructure.

A few kilometres away, on the other side of the ring road, a new aquatic centre is being built from scratch. Other facilities, including the Stade de France, will be upgraded, while events such as skateboarding, beach volleyball and archery will be held in temporary venues scattered around the city. The regeneration of the Porte de la Chapelle area, as well as the nearby suburbs of Saint-Ouen and Saint-Denis, is one of the most promising legacies of the Games. However, it also raises some doubts about what will happen when the Olympic Games are over and things return to normal. Metayer, a representative of the local residents’ association, puts it this way: “There will be 40,000 police officers on duty during the games. The question many people are asking is what will happen after the Games.”