Among the many questions surrounding the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris, one of them particularly stands out: what economic benefits can be expected from holding an event of this scale. This is the question that the Center for Sports Law and Economics (CDES) tackled in a study carried out at the request of the Paris 2024 organizing committee and the IOC and published this Tuesday, May 14. This laboratory, affiliated with the University of Limoges, had already been mobilized in 2016 during the Paris 2024 bid project to assess the economic impact that the Olympic Games could have, at the time estimated between 5.3 and 10.7 Billions of Euro’s.
The new CDES study increases these estimates: the research laboratory now forecasts between 6.7 and 11.1 billion euros in economic benefits for holding the Olympics, depending on the two most extreme scenarios. The intermediate scenario, considered the most plausible, amounts to nearly 9 billion euros generated. All this, only in Île-de-France, with Paris and its region concentrating “a very large majority of competition sites as well as most sporting events”, specifies the CDES.
For this study, the CDES studied sector by sector the impact of hosting the Games, taking into account revenues linked to the organization of the event, those arising from the construction or renovation of infrastructure and finally those expected from tourism.
It is this last point on which the most uncertainties weigh today, the tourists having obviously not yet arrived in Paris. The possible benefits are estimated between 1.4 billion euros and 3.5 billion euros. The legacy impact of the Games, i.e. the long-term benefits of the expenditure incurred, could also range from €523 million to more than €1.8 billion.
However, as the head of economic studies at CDES Christophe Lepetit reminds us, this study aims to measure “the additional activity compared to a situation where the event” would not have been organized, rather than the “profitability” of the Games. . This will be evaluated in a separate study, planned for 2025.
Ile-de-France SMEs largely favored
If the Games will indeed have a positive impact on economic activity in the Ile-de-France region, at a level that is still difficult to estimate precisely, this must still benefit French companies. The Olympic organizing committee affirms for its part that “88% of Paris 2024 suppliers are French companies, including 79% VSE-SMEs and more than 300 social and solidarity economy structures”. French SMEs and VSEs… but especially from the Ile-de-France region, almost two thirds of them located in the region.
Solideo, the Olympic works delivery company, claims that 36% of its contracts were awarded to French VSEs and SMEs. This is a level higher than the initial objective, set at 25%. “801 million euros of public contracts” were awarded to small and medium-sized businesses, said Solideo’s director of strategy and innovation, Antoine du Souich, on Tuesday. If the more than 2,600 VSEs and SMEs concerned are located in 85 different French departments, three quarters are based, again, in Île-de-France.
“We want to show that a new model of Games that is both spectacular and more responsible is possible. This is also what we set out to do from the point of view of economic impact,” the president reaffirmed this Tuesday of Paris 2024 Tony Estanguet. “The real reason for being [des Jeux] of Paris-2024, it is first of all to honor sport and Olympic and Paralympic values. But it is also about using the Games to succeed in creating an impact in our country from an economic point of view,” he added. We will now have to wait until the end of the Games in order to fully judge their impact on the French economy, or even a few additional months or years.