Stade Bollaert-Delelis

About

The Bollaert-Delelis stadium (pronounced as "Bollaert-Delelis") is the main football stadium in Lens, Pas-de-Calais. Built from 1932 to 1933, it has been the residence of the Racing Club of Lens since its opening, with the exception of the 2014-2015 season, during its renovation for the Euro 2016. Until 2013, the stadium could accommodate 41,229 spectators, for a city with 36,728 inhabitants, but for an urban area with more than 550 000 inhabitants. After renovation, the capacity of the stadium increased to 38,223. The stadium owes its name to two men important in the history of the Racing Club of Lens: Félix Bollaert (1855-1936), president of the Compagnie des mines de Lens, anxious to promote the development of sports clubs in the region and who decided to build the stadium in 1931, between pits No. 1 and No. 9 of the Company, and André Delelis (1924-2012), mayor of Lens for more than thirty years and minister of the first Mauroy government, who "save" the stadium and the team at the time when, at the end of the coal mining operation, the coal mines were disbanded.

The context leading to a new stadium in Lens: At its creation in 1906, Racing...