It was only a rumor, a simple noise which circulated in the corridors with insistence, it is now information. And it’s an earthquake. The Boulogne-Levallois club, more often called Les Metropolitans 92 so as not to offend either of the two parties concerned, is living its last months at the Marcel-Cerdan sports palace in Levallois. Alain Bouvard, president of the club, would have announced it himself to the administrative employees and to the team at the beginning of the year.
While the agreement signed between the town halls of Levallois and Boulogne in 2019 provided for the club to play its matches at the Levallois sports hall at least until 2023, the leaders – with a strong majority from Boulogne – decided to speed up the process. . They want to leave the Levallois den at the end of the current season, at the latest in June according to the course of Vincent Collet’s players in the playoffs. They currently occupy first place in the Betclic Elite on equal points with Asvel… which they welcome on Sunday for the shock of the championship.
“The representatives of Boulogne told us that they wanted to leave the sports hall at the end of the season, confirms Brahim Asloum, the former boxing champion now general manager of the Levallois Sporting Club. Discussions are still ongoing. We are in a waiting position. If they want to stay, that’s not a problem, but if they want to leave, it’s their choice and we can only respect that. “The club benefited from a minimal rental – undoubtedly one of the lowest in the championship – of around 50,000 euros per season.
A decision that has become inevitable for this two-headed club since the representatives of Levallois and Boulogne have been in conflict for several months concerning sports policy and their exchanges have become rare. But this upcoming move is not without asking some questions. In particular concerning the place where the Mets will evolve in the future.
Direction Issy-les-Moulineaux
Work on the future 5,000-seat Arena, which is to be built in the Trapèze district of Boulogne, has still not started. The inauguration scheduled for 2025 could even be postponed. In the meantime, the club has inquired about several rooms that can accommodate it.
According to our information, the leaders have decided to settle in the Robert-Charpentier sports hall in Issy-les-Moulineaux. The enclosure has the advantage of being on the territory of the GPSO, the same community of municipalities as Boulogne-Billancourt.
But the partners of Lahaou Konaté, who had priority access to “Cerdan”, will have to learn to coexist with the handball players of Paris 92… With a capacity of 1,700 seats – against 2,800 for the Levallois hall -, the sports hall d’Issy does not have an ideal configuration for basketball and would not be approved for Eurocup matches. Many works are already scheduled, including the installation of a removable stand.
The departure of the club from the historic facilities of Levallois should also, and above all, mark the end of the cohabitation between the two entities which had linked “to build the great club of the region”. Levallois, who relaunched a project with the LSC team in N 3, still owns 5% of the shares of the Metropolitans through a SCIC (cooperative society of collective interest).
