The club originally planned to have Grimonprez-Jooris redeveloped into a 33,000-seat stadium, but this proposal was rejected, and the Grand Stade Lille Métropole was constructed instead.

Although the club wanted the new stadium to retain the old name Stade Henri Jooris (named after Henri Jooris, former Lille OSC manager), the mayor proposed it to be called Stade Félix Grimonprez after Félix Grimonprez, a former field hockey player who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics.

However, the stadium still failed to meet FIFA licensing regulations and Lille had to play their 2001–02 UEFA Champions League matches at the Stade Félix-Bollaert.

In June 2003 the club's board agreed to a new proposal put forward by the city mayor to build a new 33,000-seat stadium on the site of the Grimonprez-Jooris.

In the meantime the funding of the project moved from the City Council to the Urban Community of Lille Métropole and became 100 percent public.