Guy Forget, director of Roland-Garros, hopes to benefit from an exemption to accommodate 5,000 people. But the threat looms large since the restrictive measures announced Wednesday by the government.
Three days before the start of the main draw, the organizers of Roland-Garros do not know the number of people they will be able to accommodate. After having counted on 20,000, they had to revise their copy down to 11,500 for the first time, then to 5,000. And it may not be over since Olivier Véran, Minister of Health, has placed Paris in a “heightened alert zone” due to the rebound in coronavirus contaminations.
This denomination implies lowering the audience to 1,000 people at major events. Doubt therefore hangs over the conditions of access to the Major at Porte d’Auteuil. Since this announcement, Guy Forget, director of the Parisian Grand Slam, has been feverish.
“We are awaiting with great impatience the return of the authorities to know which gauge we will be adapted to, he said on BFMTV, this Thursday. We have already been degraded twice: first to 20,000 places, then to 11,500 when we had cut our 12 hectare site into three parts. Today we are at 5,000 people, which is very little in a 12 hectare stadium, which represents 15 football fields. In terms of sanitary conditions, we meet all the criteria, we have always spoken with the authorities. Today we are a little worried. ”
“Welcoming 5,000 people in such a vast space is totally ‘secure'”
He therefore hopes to be able to benefit from a derogation. “We wait, we want it, he sinks. Today, it is more risky to go to a supermarket, to an amphitheater and to take the metro in the morning. When you are outside on such a large site , with the barrier gestures, the masks, the hydro-alcoholic gel, welcoming 5,000 people in such a vast space is totally ‘secure’. We want us to be able to welcome the fans for the great French sporting event that has international reach without any measure. “
The hypothesis of a closed session is unthinkable. “We do not want it, he concludes. At 5,000 people, we are already close to closed doors. A whole economic system is in place. Roland-Garros is the lung of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) which provides a living for hundreds of people in clubs, leagues. We are counting on this small minority of happy elected officials who will have the chance to come here to Roland-Garros. We are awaiting a return that we still do not have despite the consultations that we have had for several months. “
One thing is certain: he does not regret having maintained the tournament by moving it from May to September. “It depends if you want life to resume and people to experience emotions again, questions the former world number 4. We are coming out of months of crisis, things are going rather in the right direction and if we do our tournament with a whole responsibility, we do not see why these 5,000 people could not evolve masked in the alleys of the stadium, in the open air. It is necessary beautiful, there is wind. Life must resume. “
