Paris (AFP)
The organizers of the Paris-2024 Olympic Games will have to find ways to save money to deal with the budgetary consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, while the model suddenly appears fragile with the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
The impact of the health crisis on the budget for organizing the Olympic Games must amount to 3.8 billion euros, almost entirely financed by private revenue (sponsors, ticketing, contribution from the International Olympic Committee). It appeared on the agenda of an executive office of Paris-2024, initially scheduled for Thursday but finally postponed in extremis to a later date, due to changes in municipal teams.
The board of directors of Paris-2024, scheduled for a week, will also be shifted.
According to several players in the Olympic Games, a visit by the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, to Paris next week is still on the program. The sign of great maneuvers?
The agenda of the executive office provided in any case that the boss of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo), Tony Estanguet, to take stock of several hot issues, including that of the sponsors and delays in the construction of the lines of metro 16 and 17 of the future Grand Paris Express.
After confirmation, on June 22, by the Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, that these lines would not be delivered on time to Le Bourget, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the organizers will have to find alternative solutions to serve this Olympic zone, where shooting and volleyball must be fought, but which must above all accommodate the media center and "village".
- "10% savings" -
The budgetary question, which will remain sensitive until 2024, does not stop with the organization. In addition to the 3.8 billion euros from the Cojo, 3 billion are invested in the major construction sites of the Games (Olympic village, media village), half of which is financed by public actors. At the end of April, the total bill for the operation to build the Olympic aquatic center in Saint-Denis, the flagship equipment of the Olympic Games, was reassessed to 174.7 million euros in public funds, against 113 initially.
At the beginning of May, Tony Estanguet had set a course: to find ways of saving behind the scenes of the Olympic Games (catering, security, transport), without giving up the spectacle and the "heritage" left to the territories. Without denying the economic crisis, the triple Olympic champion in canoeing ensured that the target of sponsors remained the same, ie 1 to 1.2 billion euros in revenue.
"They planned to exceed their forecasts which were cautious. From now on, they want to content themselves with reaching it", assures, on condition of anonymity, a member of the board of directors of Paris-2024, which brings together the communities, the State and the sports movement. According to this actor, the unprecedented postponement of the Tokyo Olympics weakens the strength of the model, in the eyes of potential sponsors.
"Their plan is to find around 10% savings" on the budget, ie 300 to 400 million euros "to free up room for maneuver", adds this source, an order of magnitude confirmed by another actor of the Olympics. Questioned by AFP, the Cojo declined to comment on these figures, reaffirming that of 3.8 billion in total.
- "+ bling-bling +" -
At this budget level and for two fifteen-day events (Olympic Games then Paralympics), in Saint-Denis (Stade de France), Paris (Trocadero, Concorde), Versailles (horse riding), Marseille (sailing), and up to Tahiti (surfing), there are savings avenues, according to all the stakeholders interviewed by AFP.
"The level of service during the Olympics is delusional. It is possible to reduce a little without affecting the quality, especially for the transportation of athletes and officials," describes an elected official in a community concerned. The actors also expect less lavish and therefore less costly entertainment areas, for example Place de la Concorde, a new site that was not included in the initial project, where so-called "urban" sports (rock climbing, 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX, breakdance, skateboard).
The capacity of the Olympic village, which must stand north of Paris, has already increased from 18,000 to 15,000 beds.
Should we go further, and sacrifice competition sites or review the sail of the media village, as some imagine?
This would necessarily involve tense discussions with the communities. "We can see if there are savings to be made, let's leave aside the" bling-bling "that sometimes characterizes the Olympic Games, and I'm not necessarily talking about Paris-2024. But it is out of the question that we sacrifice the heritage for Seine-Saint-Denis ", warns the president of this department, Stéphane Troussel (PS).
© 2020 AFP