The Stade de France, built for the 1998 World Cup, cost 305 million euros to construct. From 1998 to 2012, the French government paid a consortium that managed the stadium 17 million euros annually as compensation for the lack of a permanent football club based there. These payments totaled nearly 289 million euros—almost the cost of the stadium itself. The original concession agreement, signed in the 1990s, included a penalty clause for the absence of a resident club. The government at the time, led by Édouard Balladur, granted the stadium's management to a consortium controlled by construction firms Bouygues and Vinci, which received these payments without needing to justify why no club had moved in. When the stadium was built, the government expected a major football club to eventually move to Saint-Denis after the World Cup. However, no professional club wanted or could afford to operate in a stadium that was too large and located outside Paris. Paris Saint-Germain, the city's most prominent club, remained at the Parc des Princes. Other teams lacked both the financial resources and the need to fill 80,000 seats every year. The stadium hosted the French national team and some concerts, but not the regular matches of a top-tier club that would have justified its size economically. Between 1998 and 2012, the government paid 17 million euros annually in penalties to the consortium, which amounted to 5% of the Ministry of Sports’ annual budget. This system protected the private interests of the consortium while the public finances bore the burden. Despite the repeated payments, no club ever moved into the stadium. In 2013, Minister Valérie Fourneyron decided to stop these payments, which had become financially unsustainable. This decision followed growing criticism in the National Assembly. A written question to the Minister of Sports highlighted that the 2012 financial law had set aside 12 million euros for the indemnity, and by 2012, nearly 114 million euros had been paid. This amount was reduced by the profits the consortium paid to the state, showing the complexity of the arrangement. The 2013 financial law removed all funding for the indemnity, ending the automatic payments. However, the change was not permanent. In 2016, the Court of Auditors warned that the financial burden could return, estimating a potential minimum annual cost of 23 million euros for the state, including 17 million for the possible reinstatement of the indemnity. The 2013 decision was not irreversible—any new agreement with sports federations could restart the system. The consortium faced financial difficulties after the public payments stopped. It reported losses of 1.95 million euros in 2015 and 5.98 million euros in 2016, which the company’s head compared to a 40% drop in activity. These figures reveal the structural weakness of a stadium originally designed for a one-time event—the 1998 World Cup—rather than for daily operations. Today, the Stade de France continues to seek economic stability, hosting concerts, rugby matches, and occasional football games, but without a permanent club to fill its calendar.