Stade Paul-Lignon

The Stade Paul-Lignon carries a name that dates back to the year of its opening, when Rodez's council settled on a tribute rather than a place-name. In February 1945 the town chose to honour Paul Lignon, a local rugby player killed at Auch in May 1940, at the age of thirty-one, and the ground took his name when it replaced the old dirt pitch at Foirail the following year. Before that it had been known simply as the Parc des Haras, a nod to the stables that once stood on the site.

What sets this stadium apart from a routine lower-league ground is the scale of the work carried out on it over the past several years. Rodez Aveyron Football's promotion to Ligue 2 set off a reconstruction that ran across most of that stretch, and for a spell in 2023 the capacity was cut down to little more than three thousand while building continued around the pitch in use. The ground reopened at close to full strength toward the end of 2024, and it now holds crowds for league matches at a level roughly a third higher than before the works began, with a further allowance for Coupe de France ties.

An earlier attempt at expansion, discussed around 2009, never got past the planning stage. The natural grass pitch has stayed constant through all of it, on rue Vieussens in the centre of Rodez, in the Aveyron.