Paris's Major Sports Venues Are Open for Business — Here's How to Get Inside Them

Two years after Paris hosted the Olympic Games, the venues that defined that summer are still drawing crowds — and not just for marquee events. The Stade de France in Saint-Denis, the Accor Arena in Bercy, and the refurbished Roland-Garros complex in the 16th arrondissement all run public access programmes, guided tours, and grassroots booking schemes that most Parisians have never heard of. If you have been watching from the outside, this is how to get through the doors.

The timing matters. Paris is still riding a post-Olympic infrastructure wave. The city poured roughly €1.4 billion into sports facilities between 2021 and 2024, and local authorities have since committed to keeping at least 30 percent of venue capacity available for community programming rather than commercial events. That political promise is now hitting practical deadlines. Several venue operators are actively recruiting volunteers, amateur clubs, and individual visitors to fill slots before the autumn calendar locks in — typically by mid-September each year.

The Stade de France and What It Actually Costs

Start with the Stade de France. The 80,000-seat national stadium off the A1 autoroute in Saint-Denis runs official stadium tours every day except Monday, with sessions departing at 10h00, 11h30, 14h00, and 15h30. Adult tickets run €18, reduced to €12 for under-18s and holders of the Paris Carte Musées pass. The tour takes roughly 90 minutes and includes pitch-side access, the changing rooms used by the French national rugby and football teams, and the press tribune. For club administrators, the stadium's community relations office — reachable directly through the Stade de France website — manages a separate programme called Stade Pour Tous, which allows registered amateur clubs to apply for subsidised pitch hire. Slots go quickly; the next application window opens 1 September 2026.

Down in the 12th arrondissement, the Accor Arena on the Boulevard de Bercy operates differently. There are no regular public tours, but the venue partners with the Fédération Française de Basketball to host open training days three times a year. The next one is scheduled for 18 October 2026, and pre-registration is free through the federation's Paris Île-de-France regional committee. Capacity is capped at 400 participants per session. The arena also runs a backstage volunteer programme for major events — applicants need to be at least 18, hold a valid French residence document, and commit to a minimum of three event days per season.

Roland-Garros and the Lesser-Known Routes In

Roland-Garros, at 2 Avenue Gordon Bennett in the Bois de Boulogne, is the venue most people associate purely with the French Open fortnight in late May and early June. That perception is wrong. The Fédération Française de Tennis operates the site as a functioning tennis club for ten months of the year, and public court hire is available at the adjacent Stade des Mousquetaires facility from September through April. An hour on an outdoor clay court costs €22 for non-members; covered courts run €35 per hour. The FFT also runs a beginner clinic programme — Initiation Tennis — every Saturday morning between October and March, priced at €10 per session including racquet loan.

France's heatwave this summer — which pushed excess deaths past 2,000 nationally in late June — has raised new pressure on the city to ensure indoor venues are accessible for physical activity, particularly for older residents and young people without private club memberships. The Direction de la Jeunesse et des Sports de la Ville de Paris, based at 25 Boulevard Bourdon in the 4th arrondissement, maintains a single public portal called Paris Sport where any resident can search venue availability, apply for subsidised access, and register a club. The database lists more than 340 facilities across all 20 arrondissements.

The practical next step is simple. Visit the Paris Sport portal, enter your arrondissement and your preferred sport, and filter by venues classified as Équipement Sportif de Haut Niveau — a designation that includes all five of the capital's Olympic-legacy sites. Booking windows for autumn 2026 open on 15 July. Showing up in person at any of the venues' public reception desks works too, though staff at the Stade de France have confirmed that online applications process roughly 40 percent faster than walk-ins during peak summer periods.