 The ground originally had a main cantilever stand which held 1,800 seated spectators and a smaller unseated stand for 1,200, at either end there were semi-circular standing terraces.Initially called Le Stadium, in 1977 the ground hosted the French rugby league championship Final despite the fact that Racing Club Albi XIII were in the final against AS Carcassonne the 'home' side won 19–10 in front of 18,325 fans, which was and still is the record attendance.It hosted its first international rugby league match in 1979 when the France national rugby league team beat the Papua New Guinea rugby league team 16–9.