At first, the stadium did not have lights for night matches; these were not installed until 1957. There was room for 14,000 spectators, but there were only 1,200 seats. When FC Nantes was promoted to
Ligue 1, the stadium was renovated and enlarged for 25,000 spectators. In May 1965, it was renamed Marcel-Saupin, after the recently deceased president and founding member of FC Nantes, despite his links to collaborators during World War II. The unfavourable location of the stadium, wedged between the
Loire and the urban centre, limited its expansion to 29,500 spectators in the 1970s, despite the increasing popularity of the club. For more than twenty years, "Saupin" was one of the legendary stadiums of
French football, following the success of FC Nantes. From the fireworks of
Philippe Gondet and
Jacky Simon to the championship matches between Nantes and
AS Saint-Étienne, and tough matches with old Atlantic rivals
Girondins de Bordeaux, it was there the
Canaries wrote the most glorious chapters of their history with six
French championship titles, their first
Coupe de France, and a
European semi-final in
1980. The
France national team also played there many times in the early 1970s before their resurgence in popularly forced them to play most of their matches at the
Parc des Princes in
Paris. After a final title in 1983, FC Nantes said goodbye to Saupin on April 28, 1984, after which they moved to the Beaujoire, a modern stadium constructed for the
1984 European championship, hosted by France. Saupin became the stadium of the Nantes reserve team. As part of an urban renewal project led by the Parisian architect Philippe Gazeau, the stadium was largely demolished in August 2006. Only the north stands, which are now named after Oscar Muller, and the field were preserved so that the reserve team would still be able to play there. The rest of the site houses the Maison des sciences de l'homme and the Institut d'études advancées of the
University of Nantes, a hotel-residence, and corporate offices. On 10 October 2009, Nantes hosted
FC Blois in a
CFA2 match, the first game in the new Stade Marcel-Saupin. Nantes defeated Blois 1-0 in front of 760 spectators. == Concerts ==