Having spent a cracking few days in France watching my team Leigh Centurions emerge with an excellent 36-6 victory, it gave me a chance to look at the sporting scene in a city that people are dubbing the 4th of France.
I think the following sums up where the sport is in that city.
Toulouse FC attracts an average of 30,000 people to each game at their modern stadium, the club also has a TV channel that broadcasts on the local digital network from evening to morning. There is widespread coverage in the press, local news and radio.
Stade Toulouse RU are currently near the top of the Orange Top 14 Championship and rugby union is huge in the city. The club plays before average crowds of 19,000 at a good facility and boasts three boutiques that I am aware of in the city, one at the ground, one in the city centre, and one at the airport. Being in the city made me realise how big a sport rugby union is in the area, the papers and magazines were full of it and many cars carried Stade Toulouse badges, stickers etc. On the Saturday following Leigh's match an entire afternoon on Canal Plus Sport was dedicated to Union, they showed one game live and there were then highlights from every other game in the championship. Stade themselves played the night before, in direct competition with Olympique-Leigh and drew 19,000 for their game with Paris based Racing Metro.
Toulouse Olympique play in somewhat modest surroundings by comparison, a ground with two seater stands and space for standing at both ends, Arnaude Stadium serves a purpose and is a municipal owned ground with a capacity circa 4,000. The official crowd figure given was 1,225 but I would hotly dispute that and say there was anywhere between 600-850 on the ground. The following day La Depeche newspaper did carry a report on the game and there were several journalists and a radio commentary crew in attendance. Olympique have items on-sale from the ground and there is a shop but when I returned on Saturday this was closed so I didn't get chance to spend the Euros that were burning a hole in my pocket.
This just showed me how far Rugby League has to go in this big city. I do however expect things to be somewhat different next week when I travel to Carcassonne and Limoux.
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