The best-supported rugby club in Europe raised its average attendance to new heights last weekend, leaving Toulouse and Leicester further behind in the bums-on-seats business.
Bordeaux have surpassed not merely the duo envied for their crowds on either side of the Channel but everyone else, including Leinster. Their numbers, inflated by the phenomenal 80,000 at Croke Park for the Munster match last autumn, still fall short of those generated by the Pied Pipers on the banks of the Garonne.
L’Union Bordeaux Begles, their official title since the amalgamation of 2007, have averaged 33,192 for their ten home matches in the Top 14; more than the four Welsh regions are able to muster between them. More significantly, Bordeaux draw larger crowds than half the football clubs in the Premier League.
Leinster, based in an affluent part of the Irish capital with a population five times greater than Bordeaux’s, have drawn an average of 31,844 for their six Dublin fixtures in the URC. Toulouse are a long way adrift at 21,496, likewise Leicester.
Bordeaux have not won a major trophy since the 1991 French final against Toulouse, a victory based on the explosive front row of Serge Simon, Vincent Moscato and Philippe Gimbert, two thirds of whom were sent off against England in Paris the following year.
“The club with the best support in Europe keeps raising average attendances”
During the 34 years since Bordeaux’s last title, Leinster, Toulouse and Leicester have collected more than 40 between them, including 12 Champions Cups. All that silverware is barely worth a centime when it comes to matching Bordeaux’s soaring popularity.
In the course of virtually doubling their home support over the last ten seasons, they have still to find a stadium too big for their following. The Stade Jacques Chaban-Delmas, named after the former Prime Minister and resistance fighter, has been packed to its 32,215 capacity all season. When the club switched the Toulouse match a fortnight ago to the city’s larger stadium with room for a few more than 44,000, they packed that out, too. Rugby is now the only show in town and that truly makes Bordeaux unique.
There used to be two: FC Girondins de Bordeaux, six times national champions, and Begles-Bordeaux RFC. Ten seasons ago, sharing the same stadium, the football club averaged gates of 23,459, the rugby club a few more at 23,766.
An up-to-date comparison is not possible because FC Girondins no longer exists as a professional entity. They went bust last summer, resurfacing among the amateur clubs in the fourth level of French football.
Meanwhile, the rugby club push onwards and upwards under the ownership of the clothing tycoon, Laurent Marti. If they beat Ulster today before the customary full house, further home ties in the Champions Cup will be staged at the larger stadium under-used since the soccer club’s implosion.
The mind boggles as to how many more will follow the Bordeaux bandwagon should they end up relieving Toulouse of one, or both, of their treasured titles as champions of France and Europe.
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