POLL – Paris 2024 Olympics: how much will it cost… and return to France?

Organizing the French Olympic Games next summer will require substantial funds to be laid on the table: an envelope of 8.2 billion euros will be required. This is the figure announced by the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (COJOP) in Paris 2024. In terms of organizational income, this already includes funding for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in particular from television rights, derivative products and partnerships, as well as ticket sales. In general, it should allow to release 4.4 billion euros.

Thus, the organizer assures that if the price of seats soared for a small part of the tickets, causing a flurry of criticism, it was precisely in order to be able to amortize the total costs of organizing the competition. “We have an extremely wide, extremely affordable price list with unusual tickets: 5% of seats over €400, 10% over €200.”describes Mikael Aloisio, Deputy General Manager of COJOP, in the 20H TF1 report at the beginning of the article. “It is this economic model that allows us to balance the budget of games”he insists. But this is not the only lever the Committee relies on to balance its costs.

Another potential source of income: the influx of tourists associated with the event, which, according to the latest available forecasts from the Center for Sports Law and Economics (CDES), which dates back to 2017, could generate $2.8 billion. Thus, the cash inflow will rise to 7.2 billion euros, approaching the allocated 8.2 billion.

At the Parisian four-star hotel Le Petit Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement, the manager has already noticed rampant demand and has drastically increased prices, resulting in: “between 25 and 30% compared to today’s price”, Soorut Sukun explains. Despite this increase, “we got the booking done fairly quickly”, he notes. A year before the Games, half of the premises have already been rented out, an unprecedented situation for the institution.

As for the growth of the French economy as a whole, which should benefit from this event of world significance, it is too early to calculate it. But from the side of Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhone, the city will undoubtedly benefit from this. The arrival of the Olympic flame, ten football matches and sailing events promise Marseille a global showcase for hundreds of millions of people thanks to television.

And some achievements can already be measured. South of the city, recruiting firm HumainEA has taken over the administrative management of 200 work and study interns in the Organizing Committee, a real change of scale for a small company of seven. “It opened up new markets, new doors”– Natasha Kappellier, co-founder and director of the company, rejoices. “We signed contracts with government agencies, with private companies … And we hired two people.” According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a total of 150,000 jobs have been mobilized for the preparation and holding of the Olympics.

Finally, it is also necessary to take into account the works built or renovated at all sites: housing for athletes and swimming pools will then be used by the public. This investment could bring Paris 2024 resources to 8.5 billion euros, or 300 million euros more than spending, enough to tip the balance towards revenue.

While all these total economic benefits are still difficult to estimate, some forecasts are already very optimistic: Between tourism, organization and construction, these revenues should be between 5.3 and 10.7 billion euros for the Île-de-France region alone, according to a National Assembly fact-finding mission report presented in early July, which was inspired by the work of CDES.

Provided, however, that the original budget is not increased thoughtlessly. Big risk as cost drift during the Olympics is systematic. “The average cost overrun since the 1968 Olympics is 167%.”noted in a 2016 study by Vladimir Andreff, professor emeritus at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and specialist in sports economics.

The overall COJOP budget has already been revised several times, in part due to inflation, with a notable increase of 10% at the end of 2022. “plus 16% cost increase”And this “without inflation”she assured. The preliminary budget for the British capital was set at $4.8 billion, with the final cost rising to $11 billion. World.

For its part, the Accounts Chamber estimated in a report published last June that the budget for organizing the 2024 Games was “underrated” initially criticized “an incomprehensible misunderstanding of the complexity of the IOC specifications”. So much so that, in her words, “optimization effort” likely to be completed by the start of the event to keep this budget within the fixed nails. Its first president, Pier Moscovici, assured last week that he “extremely considerate” the cost of organizing competitions, in an interview with Parisian.