1. Why this nickname “Cauldron”?
Several versions confront each other on this subject. But one puts everyone in agreement: it was the day after ASSE’s meeting against the Hajduk Split on November 6, 1974 that the journalists nicknamed the sports arena, the “Cauldron”.
It was the second leg in the round of 16 of the Champions Clubs Cup (4-1 first leg). The fusion between the green people and the players was so strong, the atmosphere so hot that the nickname was found.
When the athletics track was removed in 1956, the football stadium resembled those built in England. The audience is closer to the players, which also contributes to the feeling of being in a cauldron or in a pot.
Others will say that this name was given long before. The municipal archives of the city of Saint-Étienne retrace: “The first matches are played under clouds of smoke. Indeed, the stadium is surrounded by many factories. “Not far from the Arms Factory and its smoke-spitting chimneys, the stadium is said to have been nicknamed the” Cauldron “.
2. It is rugby players who inaugurate the Geoffroy-Guichard football stadium
Geoffroy Guichard wanted the AS Casino stadium to be able to accommodate many sports (hence its athletics track) but his friend, Henri Point wanted rugby to prevail there as with Montferrand.
So it’s no coincidence, even if the anecdote is funny that it was players from the oval who struck the three blows of the great stadium adventure on September 13, 1931, 90 years ago.
In this poster, AS Montferrand faced the Forézien Universitaire stadium and the Clermontois won 32 to 11. In raising the curtain, in football, the Association Sportive Stéphanoise was beaten by AS Cannes 9 to 1.
3. Lighting but no anti-fog
On October 22, 1965, a singular event loomed. Indeed, the spectators are invited to attend a friendly meeting between ASSE and the great USSR team (which will be semi-finalist of the 1966 World Cup in England) for the inauguration of the lighting of Geoffroy- Guichard. 20,000 people flocked for the event.
Unfortunately, if the spotlight is successful, the fog has been decided to join the game. The public sees nothing. The players hardly any better. In this meeting which will resemble the one played at Aris Salonika in 1977, Georges Bereta six meters from the Soviet goalkeeper lit a fuse (so to speak) at close range.
The great Lev Yachine, will look for the ball in his skylight, under the dumbfounded gaze of the Saint-Etienne striker. Having come to greet him in the locker room, “Jojo” discovers what the Soviets are up to. Dozens of bottles of Vodka litter the ground. Antifreeze, Bereta thought, to himself. Maybe, but not anti-fog.
4. Cyclist Louison Bobet takes the yellow jersey from the Greens
Louison Bobet triumphed on the ashen track of Geoffroy-Guichard on July 25, 1953 during the Tour de France time trial between Lyon and Saint-Etienne (70 kilometers). During this 20th stage, on a 12-meter-wide track, he made an entry and a triumphant turn and kept his yellow jersey two days before the finish on the Champs-Elysées.
The Geoffroy-Guichard stadium then takes on all the dimension that Pierre Guichard wanted to give it in its beginnings with a multidisciplinary vocation.
5. Officially 47744 spectators for ASSE – Lille, but unofficially?
For this quarter-final of the French football cup between Saint-Étienne and Lille on May 11, 1985, the Chaudron is packed. The Greens, who play in the second division following the slush fund affair, are still successful.
In the previous round, they eliminated Lens with a peak of 47,000 spectators. This is even better. And President André Laurent (1938-1993) will confide as an aside that we have passed the bar of 50,000 people. Quiet ! Because 15 days later, the Heysel drama will remind everyone that we should not have fun pushing walls …
Note that the capacity is nearly 42,000 spectators, a nod to the Insee code of the Loire department: 42.