Stade du Ray

Ground: Stade du Ray

Visits: 1

Date: 22nd February 2013

Match: Nice - Stade de Reims 2-0 (Ligue 1)

Attendance: 8 463

Since my visit OGC Nice have moved to a new ground. Pictures from the new ground: Allianz Riviera

On Friday evenings in France there are plenty of matches to choose from. Two matches in Ligue 2 are moved to Saturday and Monday for live TV-coverage but the remaining fixtures are played on Fridays. My choice was not to be a Ligue 2 match though, there is one Ligue 1 match played on Fridays as well and Nice vs Stade de Reims was to be my choice. I was then hoping Monaco was to play their Ligue 2 match on Saturday but it was (of course) chosen as the Monday match. Instead it was a CFA (level 4) match for me on Saturday but more about that later. My journey to Nice started 09.06 on Friday morning as I boarded the TGV-train at Part Dieu station in Lyon. Two hours later I was in Marseille and after another 2,5 hours I was in Nice, the capital of Cote d´Azur. Parts of the train journey from Marseille to Nice was very close to the coast line and I had some impressive views during the latter part of my train journey. Once in Nice I had a 10-minute walk to my hotel. Apparently there is a carnival in Nice this week but I was unaware of this. The hotel receptionist seemed very surprised when I told her I didn´t know about the carnival. She was even more surprised when I told her I was in Nice for football!

Stade du Ray in Nice is situated a 10-minute tram journey from the train station and since it was uphill all the way I was pleased not to have chosen to walk. I was at the ground around 3pm and went to the ticket office to buy my ticket. 2012/13 is the last ever season football is played at Stade du Ray and as I walked round the ground I could understand why OGC Nice are building a new ground. The new stadium will be opened in July this year and will have a capacity of 35 500. Allianz Riviera, as the new stadium will be called, will be used for the 2016 European Championships. Stade du Ray has a capacity of 16 000 of which 8 000 can sit in the main stand. The other stands are a strange mix of seating and terracing and are all uncovered. To my delight I found an open gate and I could sneak in to take some pictures. As I made my way back to the city centre I decided to take the tram all the way to the beach. I have to say it was a bit strange to see plenty of empty stands (see pic below) along the beach and streets in the city centre, for the carnival I guess. Down by the beach it was not difficult to understand how busy it must be during the summer in Nice.

Kick-off was at 20.30 and by 18.45 I was back at Stade du Ray. As always it is a great experience to walk to a ground, see the floodlights and feel the excitement of the fans. My seat was in row 34 in the main stand and I had a great view of the action. With Nice being 4th in the table and the visitors from Reims being 4th from bottom this was a match Nice should win. Reims had around 25 fans at the match but this is a long journey for them and considering the league positions I wasn´t expected more than 25-30 to be honest. Nice started the match very well and went 1-0 up after a penalty. They continued to create chances but no more goals in the first half. The second half was more even but when Reims had a player sent off Nice could score again and the match finished 2-0. The atmosphere from the home fans in Populaire Sud was quite good and even if the attendance was "only" 8 500 I enjoyed my Friday evening at Stade du Ray. I was back at my hotel shortly before 11pm and quickly fell asleep.

nice, beach1