Very expensive, these Paris Olympic Games? When it presented its project tooth and nail to the IOC in 2017, the Paris 2024 organizing committee took care to particularly highlight the budgetary sobriety of the event, counting on a budget approaching 6.8 billion euros. euros. Except that since then, the bill has continued to rise, making some people see an uncontrolled slide.
According to the Asterès firm, headed by our columnist Nicolas Bouzou, total spending for Paris 2024 should approach 11.8 billion euros. In detail, we find 4.4 billion euros for the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop), the concrete organization of the events. There is then also 4.4 billion euros for the Olympic works delivery company (Solideo), the construction and renovation part of the installations, whether transport, stadiums or even the Olympic village.
Finally, Asterès is counting on 3 billion euros for other “probable costs”. Expenditures which include overtime for police officers or gendarmes mobilized throughout the summer, as well as other external security expenses, or even budget overruns borne by the State. An “estimate”, underlines Sylvain Bersinger, chief economist at the Asterès firm, to L’Express. “We know that there are often a few slip-ups in these events. 3 billion is the high envelope, the ceiling that we have estimated.”
Inflation, an essential element of comparison
Is 11.8 billion euros a lot to organize the Olympic and Paralympic Games? Not necessarily, when we compare to the latest editions. Far, far away, the more than 30 billion euros spent on the Beijing (2008) or Rio (2016) editions. Paris 2024 should also cost less than the Tokyo Games (2021), and be in the same waters as London (2012) or Athens (2004). In general, the Asterès firm recalls that “the average organizational cost of the last 9 editions (since Seoul in 1988) was 14.4 billion euros”. A little more than the estimates for Paris, therefore.
But the objective of this study is to go further than these raw, very imperfect data. “We have to put the figures from each edition in their context. Between inflation or the war in Ukraine, we simply cannot compare the costs of Paris 2024 with those of more than 10 years ago, that does not makes no sense”, underlines Sylvain Bersinger.
Thus, the study by the Asterès firm weighted the budgets of all the latest editions with the inflation level of 2024. Enough to increase the average cost of organizing the latest editions by 28% to reach “18.5 billion d ‘euros’, or “significantly more than the expected cost of 11.8 billion euros for the Paris Games”, specifies the note. Thus, Tokyo would exceed 20 billion euros in spending, Athens and London would approach 15 billion. For its part, Paris 2024 would therefore be the third least expensive Games over the last nine editions, only beaten by Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).
And beyond economic factors, another factor must also be taken into account: the perpetual expansion of the Olympic Games. From 237 events at the Seoul Games in 1988, we have now increased to 329 in Paris. “The Olympics grow from edition to edition, with ever more events and athletes. To the point that we no longer actually compare the same events,” recalls Sylvain Bersinger. And therefore… not the same budgets. In the same way as with inflation, the Asterès firm has weighted the costs of the last nine editions with the same number of tests as in Paris… bringing the average expenditure to 20.5 billion euros. That is to say “nearly double the expected cost of Paris 2024”, still only exceeded by Atlanta and Sydney, but almost four times cheaper than the Rio Games, for example.
Public expenditure amortized
The State is also a long way from paying 11.8 billion euros out of its own pocket for the organization of the Games. Of these total expenditures, the Asterès firm estimates that we should find “6.6 billion euros of private expenditure (ticketing, sponsorship) and 5.2 billion euros of public expenditure”. Enough to further put into perspective the cost for the State of organizing the Games, despite the increase in the budget since the presentation of the project.
Above all, according to the Asterès cabinet, “the economic stimulation generated by the event would generate tax revenues generally equivalent to the public expenditure incurred”. A rather virtuous organization therefore, affirms Sylvain Bersinger. “There will be no significant cost for the taxpayer. The event should be generally neutral. There have been investments in stadiums, sports venues, in transport. But these must generate revenue which must make it possible to offset the costs of construction and renovation. Definitive answer within a few months.