Racing 92 will once again have to leave their Paris La Défense Arena home. Major concerts and international sporting events have muscled their way into the multi-purpose venue’s calendar again, forcing the Ciel et Blanc to move three important fixtures to the Dominique-Duvauchelle stadium in Créteil. A logistical headache that raises the question of what home advantage really means for the Paris-region club.

Used to the vast arena in Nanterre, Racing 92’s players will have to get used to far more modest surroundings for several fixtures this season. The first exile is set for 11 October, on round 6 of the Top 14: the home game against Montpellier will be played at Créteil, with the Arena booked for a long-planned concert by the rapper Booba.

Two weeks later, the same again: on 25 October, Section Paloise will face the Racingmen not at Nanterre but at Créteil once more, this time because of the Rolex Paris Masters, the last Masters 1000 of the tennis season. Finally, on 14 December, it is the Champions Cup opener against Exeter that will be moved, replaced at the Arena by a concert from Jean-Louis Aubert, the former singer and guitarist of the rock band Téléphone.

The consequences of a multi-purpose venue

This run of forced relocations is, unfortunately, nothing new. Since 2017 and the opening of the Arena, Racing 92 have grown used to playing elsewhere. Last season the club already had to deal with a calendar disrupted by the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Five matches were played at Créteil, against Clermont, La Rochelle, Toulon and Toulouse (in the Top 14) and Harlequins (in the Champions Cup), for three wins and two defeats.

For the supporters as much as for the players, though, the impact is very real. Perhaps that is the flip side for a venue conceived as a multi-purpose hall, able to host giant concerts, shows and competitions alike, but not always working in favour of its residents’ sporting stability?

An open-air pitch

Paris La Défense Arena, with its ultra-modern facilities, its synthetic pitch and closed roof, its acoustics and its very particular atmosphere, is part of Racing’s identity. At Créteil the setting will be entirely different: smaller stands, a more intimate atmosphere and surroundings a long way from the usual prestige. Above all, an open-air pitch with a distinctly heavy surface, better suited to the footballers of US Créteil-Lusitanos (National 2).

In purely sporting terms, Montpellier, Pau and Exeter are hardly trivial opponents and home advantage could (and should) have played its part, even if Racing are far from all-conquering in their Arena (4 defeats and 2 draws last season). The Ciel et Blanc will therefore have to be solid and turn these constraints into a source of motivation, or risk seeing their season undermined by a decidedly unkind calendar.