On 20 March 1892 the USFSA organised the first ever French rugby union championship, a one-off game between Racing Club de France and Stade Français.

While in the third division of the French leagues, entrepreneur Max Guazzini took over the club in 1992 with the goal of bringing back top class rugby to the city of Paris.

Mallett soon returned home to South Africa and former Stade Français player and national captain Fabien Galthié was appointed head coach.

In early June 2011, Stade Français temporarily avoided an administrative relegation to the amateur Fédérale 1 league when Guazzini announced a deal by which an unnamed investor, working through a Canada-based foundation, would purchase a majority stake in the club.

The arrival of the Swiss businessman put an end to a long story in Paris marked by the aborted merger with rival Racing 92 in March 2017.

At the same time as the question of prices, Guazzini envisaged the match as the main event in a family outing, and worked on activities before, during and after the matches: cheerleaders, music, jingles when points were scored, bells signalling the end of each half, a remote-controlled car bringing the tee to the kicker, the club's anthem, (I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor (long before it was adopted by the France national football team)), etc.

The Dieux du Stade (Gods of the Stadium) calendar, which had famous players posing nude for black-and-white photos, made the news when it first appeared in 2001.

”Speaking of post-match reception, he took a swipe in passing at the keepers of the South West France flame: "The eternal temple, with its fanfare, foie gras and saucisson, is a bit outdated.

Faced with the size limits of Stade Jean-Bouin (room for about 10,000 people), and still wishing to develop the club's popularity until they could find a new, bigger home, Guazzini set his sights higher.

In April 2005, he wanted to play the quarter-final match of the European Champions Cup, against Newcastle, at Parc des Princes, located across from Stade Jean-Bouin.

Using an aggressive sales strategy (half of the seats were available for €5 or 10, sponsors were actively approached) and effective communication, he did: on 15 October 2005, Stade Français Paris beat the world attendance record for a regular season rugby union league match (79,502 spectators).

In addition to the pricing policy, there was additional entertainment on display at Stade de France: thousands of blue and pink flags placed on the seats, famous singers and musicians (Les Tambours du Bronx 15 October 2005, Michel Delpech 27 January 2007), circus performers, giant karaoke, a parade of children from rugby schools in the Paris region (27 January 2007) each time the ball would arrive in a different and spectacular way, once in a chariot drawn by two horses (15 October 2005), once by Miss France 2006 emerging from a giant egg in the middle of the pitch (27 January 2007), dancers from the Moulin Rouge, wrestling bouts, the Gipsy Kings (13 May 2007), fireworks after the match, etc.

Pierre Blayau, President of Paris Saint-Germain, which refused to loan out the Parc des Princes in 2005, stated: "I find their communication [...] a bit excessive.

The new Paris Saint-Germain management nonetheless agreed to welcome Stade Français again, for a European Champions Cup match against the Sale Sharks, on 10 December 2006 (44,112 spectators).

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.

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.

On 14 May 2017, Thomas Savare announced he had selected the German-Swiss entrepreneur, Hans-Peter Wild, to take charge of the French capital's club, and handed over the keys.

Dr. Wild, the founder of Capri-Sun, was a big fan of both rugby and Paris, and he announced his desire to remain at the head of the Parisian club in the long term.

He also reinforced the professional staff, with the arrival of new recruits for 2018–2019, including internationals Gaël Fickou, Yoann Maestri and Nicolás Sánchez.

The new sport project and the new logo were both an homage to the club's prestigious past and a call for new ambition: the (R)evolution was presented at Stade Jean-Bouin on 16 May 2018, the anniversary of the first Top 14 title win in the Guazzini era (in 1998, versus Perpignan).

During the event, which brought together several thousand people, former Stade Français Paris players were honoured and the club's new goals for the coming 5 years were presented.

Ironically, it was probably given by British players, against whom the Stadistes played early on, to differentiate them from their own Paris associations as rugby was very much an expatriates' game in the late 1880s.

Then Club President Guazzini made a decision to take a European quarter final match against Newcastle to the significantly larger Parc des Princes, which is literally across the street from Stade Jean-Bouin.

[9] On 22 March 2008, they played their home match against Toulouse at Stade de France for the third straight season,[10] and set yet another record with 79,779 in attendance.

In the upcoming 2010–11 season, the number of Top 14 matches at Stade de France will return to three, namely Toulon, Toulouse, and Clermont.

His contacts in show business allowed him to bring superstars Madonna and Naomi Campbell to some games, making them the official club's "godmothers".

Guazzini's latest moves include renting the Parc des Princes, Stade de France, and most recently King Baudouin Stadium for big games, and using pink jerseys.

Others consider it is good for rugby in its quest to maintain itself as France's second most popular sport after Association football and shed its image as a gross rural south-western form of fistfight.

Today, Stade Français has no established local rival, although Racing 92 may fill that role if it consolidates its current top-flight status.

Stade's Heineken Cup semi-final victory in April 2005 probably did a lot to create tension between the two clubs, as Christophe Dominici scored the winning try after nine minutes of injury time at the Parc des Princes.