Stade des Alpes
Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes, France
Stade des Alpes, Grenoble, France — opened 14 June 1936, 6 rugby league games hosted, home of Grenoble Olympique XIII (rugby league, founded 1934, dissolved mid-1980s), sharing the municipal ground with Grenoble Foot 38 (football) and FC Grenoble (rugby union).
Sourcing caveat: Our recorded date range (1935-1974) starts a year before Stade Charles-Berty's own June 1936 opening; only 4 of our recorded 6 games could be individually dated and confirmed (all France v Great Britain tests, 1957-1974) — the identity of the earliest 1935 and any remaining fixture were not found. Floodlight installation was not found in any source.
Ground facts
| Opened | 14 June 1936 (The venue listed under this name in our directory, and matching Rugby League Project's own "Stade des Alpes" match ledger (6 games, 1935-1974), cannot be the current Stade des Alpes, which did not open until 2008 — independently confirmed. Every source found is unanimous that the ground actually used for rugby league on this site through 1935-1974 was its predecessor, Stade Charles-Berty, a municipal velodrome/stadium demolished in 2003 after which the current Stade des Alpes was built on the same footprint (Parc Mistral). This entry describes Stade Charles-Berty, the real historic ground, rather than inventing history for the modern stadium that did not yet exist.) |
| Home club | Grenoble Olympique XIII (rugby league, founded 1934, dissolved mid-1980s), sharing the municipal ground with Grenoble Foot 38 (football) and FC Grenoble (rugby union) |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 6 |
| Top recorded crowd | 20,000 |
| Capacity | approximately 15,000-18,000 seated at opening (sources vary); around 20,000 present for large occasions such as the ground's 1936 Tour de France stage finish |
| Test matches hosted | 4 |
| Surface | grass pitch surrounded by a cycling velodrome track |
| First rugby league match | not confirmed — earliest rugby league test recorded here is 2 March 1957, France 3-23 Great Britain, though our recorded date range begins in 1935, a year before the ground itself opened in June 1936, an unresolved discrepancy |
| Years used | 1935–1974 |
| Location | Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes |
Name history
- Stade Charles-Berty — 1936–2003, the actual rugby-league-hosting ground on this site, named for cyclist/Resistance figure Charles Berty; demolished 2003
- Stade des Alpes — the current stadium built on the same site, opened 2008 — a rugby union/football venue with no rugby league connection of its own
Rugby league history
Grenoble was a genuine, if modest and short-lived, outpost of French rugby league — active as a club from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s, briefly reaching the national top flight in the early-to-mid 1970s, and hosting several France national-team fixtures against Great Britain in the 1950s and 1970s. The city and its stadium site are far better known today for football (Grenoble Foot 38) and rugby union (FC Grenoble, now playing at the rebuilt Stade des Alpes since 2014); rugby league is a minor, largely forgotten chapter there, and the actual ground it used no longer exists under that name.
The site today hosts Grenoble Foot 38 (football, Ligue 2) and FC Grenoble (rugby union, Top 14) in the rebuilt Stade des Alpes (2008), unrelated in fabric to the 1936 stadium described above.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 2 March 1957 — France 9-23 Great Britain (20,000, our recorded top crowd)
- 5 April 1957 — France 24-15 Great Britain (8,500)
- 1 November 1972 — France 4-13 Great Britain (5,321)
- 20 January 1974 — France 5-24 Great Britain (4,100)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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