Marti's mission makes the Begles top dogs

PETER JACKSON reveals how many, or how few, watched Europe’s top leagues

- PETER JACKSON

A decade has come and gone since Max Guazzini hired a troupe of showgirls from the Folies Berger and transformed staid old Stade Francais into a rugby production of Cecil B DeMille's The Greatest Show On Earth.

Like every other club, the then newly-formed Union of Bordeaux Begles followed the phenomenon from afar in jaw-dropping disbelief but without the wherewithal to do anything about it. One major deficiency left them with no option but to move to the beat of a slower drum.

They didn’t have a crowd. So few attended the old the ground in the suburbs that 3,000 was considered a number to shout about. Despite the relative success of achieving promotion to the Top 14, there seemed nothing to suggest that Guazzini’s Pied Piper effect could be replicated on the banks of the Girondin.

Laurent Marti was working on it. It would take time to find a crowd worthy of such a beautiful place and the newly installed president set about finding one based on criteria which had nothing to do with the Folies Berger or the local equivalent.

Marti set himself three goals – creating a winning environment, finding a proper stadium, and filling it with affordable prices. The squad kept improving, the grand old Stade Chaban-Delmas matched their vaulting ambition and the club offer a 16-match season ticket for €79.