The Biggest Arena In Europe - Paris La Defense Arena

• Key Figures
• From 10,000 to 40,000 spectators
• 40 events per year
• $408 million of investment
• 4 years of work

Converting a sport field into a fully flexible venue with telescopic stands

Located in one of the most attractive business districts in the world, Paris La Défense Arena is the largest arena in Europe. Inaugurated in 2017, it is the fruit of an ambitious project combining sport, show and convention event in a 1,011,808 ft² (94,000 m²) arena.

The Project

Originally, the project was to provide the legendary French rugby club, Racing 92, with a new arena. Driven by the various stakeholders, the business model evolved into a multi-purpose venue which schedules 40 events annually, including 16 rugby matches of the resident team. The various services offered (room rental, hospitalities, catering, seminars and convention) generate sales from 52 to 64 million dollars per year.

For Christian de Portzamparc, the architect of the project, the challenge was to design a venue capable of adapting to multiple configurations (from 40000 to 10000 spectators) while offering an exceptional experience to the public. The U shape that offers unmatched visibility and contributes to the commitment and emotion of the audience was one of the answers. The use of telescopic stands was another.

Folded telescopic stand at Paris La Défense Arena

Selected for its extensive experience and the quality of its telescopic systems, MASTER Industrie has contributed to the success of this project. The telescopic stands, located in the lower part, offer a capacity of more than 4200 seats. The peculiarities of the installation were multiple, such as the trapezoidal corner platforms and the BLUECUBE plastic seats which were the only ones able to meet the dimensions chosen by the architect. Moreover, moving the stand to its storage is easily done with a forklift.

The biggest challenge was to provide a set of completely modular telescopic stands to adapt to the particularities of each hosted event.

The Rolling Stones performance at Paris La Défense Arena

The Venue Today

The three inaugural concerts of The Rolling Stones in October 2017 during the "No Filter" tour set the pace for this new reference in the world of entertainment. Since then, the venue has hosted artists such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Roger Waters, and will host events of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.