repeated discussions and submissions, the planned new stadium was finally accepted by Paris City Hall on 29 March 2010. The building permit was granted on 12 May and demolition of the former stadium began as soon as the 2009/2010 season came to an end. With a 20,000 seat capacity, the new Jean Bouin was inaugurated on 30 August 2013, hosting a comfortable victory (38-3) over Biarritz Olympique. In April 2011, the magazine Le 10 Sport announced that the owner, Max Guazzin, had put the club up for sale9. The club was suffering from serious financial difficulty, in particular due to the liquidation of Sportys, its advertising manager and minority shareholder. The Thomas Savare era At this time, Thomas Savare, managing director of the new shareholder, the Oberthur Fiduciaire group, took over as President of the club, replacing Max Guazzini. He invested 11 million Euros in the club, saying goodbye to Bernard Laporte and choosing the former third row of the Paris club, Richard Pool-Jones, as vice-president. During the European campaign of the 2012–13 season, Stade Français increased the number of matches it played elsewhere for the European Challenge Cup matches, playing at the Stade Océane in Le Havre, the MMArena in Le Mans and the Stade du Hainaut in Valenciennes. Furthermore, on 30 March 2013, they played a league match against Toulon at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille. The next few financial years saw Stade Français remain in the red, leading its main shareholder to re-inject cash. This situation led to significant tension within the Oberthur Fiduciaire shareholding family. In September 2014, Thomas Savare sisters, Marie and Emmanuelle, who were also shareholders in the Oberthur Fiduciaire group and who opposed the investment, decided to publicise their opposition to the investment, which they considered economically pointless and a bottomless pit. For his part, Thomas Savare spoke of an "investment out of passion" and stated that he would continue to work towards the club becoming financially self-sufficient12. Abortive merger with Racing 92 On Monday, 13 March 2017, the club President, Thomas Savare, announced the planned merger of the club with its neighbour, Racing 92 for the 2017-2018 season13. The next day, the Stade Français players held a team meeting and decided to give provisional notice of a strike to last an undetermined period of time, in order to demand the cancellation of the merger. They refused to take part in either training