2024-04-13 16:11:36
This is what’s called breaking the bill in a big way. Initially estimated at 3.8 billion euros, the total bill for the Paris Olympics is currently close to 9 billion euros, including just over 2.4 billion in public money. Everything has not yet been counted, invoiced, added up, and it is likely that the final bill will exceed ten billion euros. The kind of expense report that the accounting department doesn’t usually let slip through, at least in a normal box.
But even if that is the case, these Games would be one of the least expensive editions in modern history. The Olympic organizing committee (Cojo) organizes the competition thanks mainly to private money from sponsors (1.24 billion), the International Olympic Committee (1.2 billion) and ticket sales (1.4 billion). In total, already 4.4 billion euros are used to rent the Stade de France, to pay security agents, the beds in the Olympic village, the temporary stands and even the dancers for the opening ceremony.
The underestimated budget, a great classic of the genre
At the end of 2022, Cojo increased its budget by 10%, particularly due to inflation. He then received additional public money of 111 million euros from the State and communities, particularly for the organization of the Paralympic Games. The Court of Auditors considered that this increase also came from the underestimation of the initial budget, a classic in this area.
100 days before the event, “the risk zone is now”, notes a government source. Cojo still has a cushion of nearly 120 million euros from which it can draw. A sign that times are tough, he recently asked the Ile-de-France region to contribute to bus transport for accredited people, a cost of ten million euros. The region refused.
The State is monitoring closely: in the event of a deficit, it will intervene because it has given its guarantee of three billion euros. “For the moment, there is no reason to think that there will be a deficit,” recently assured the Minister of Sports and the Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castera.
Public money for infrastructure
If “the Games finance the Games”, according to the organizers’ formula, it was always planned that the infrastructures would be covered by public money. The Olympic village which will be transformed into housing put on the market (646 million including 542 from the State), the footbridge between the Stade de France and the Olympic aquatic center, contributions to the new swimming pools in Seine-Saint-Denis…
Via the Olympic works delivery company (Solideo), nearly 1.8 billion euros of public funds (State, IDF region, Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis, etc.) went to the Olympics. Solideo’s total budget is 4.4 billion euros. Added to the Cojo budget, the note is close to nine billion euros at 8.8 billion euros. Or two billion more than what was planned for 2019 (6.8 billion).
Other expenses still not quantified
What will be the exact cost of public security, including bonuses of 1,900 euros for police officers? Bonuses for the civil service are not quantified either. The president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, estimated public investments at three billion euros in the end. “Three, four, five billion euros”, he updated recently, this will be known “after the Olympics”. “There is no reason for it to reach five billion,” retorted Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who assures that there are neither “budgetary excesses nor hidden costs”.
If we take the estimate from the Court of Auditors, the addition will undoubtedly be around ten billion euros. To which we may have to add financial surprises in recent months. The Tokyo Olympics, aggravated by the Covid health crisis and their postponement for one year, cost twelve billion euros according to the Japanese Court of Auditors, almost twice as much as in the candidacy file.
In London, according to evaluations (variable depending on the scope), they cost between twelve and fifteen billion euros. In Athens, in 2004, the Olympic Games, which put a strain on the Greek state’s deficits, cost thirteen billion euros. “These budgets are probably the most controlled in the history of the Olympics” and “the most soberly organized in twenty years,” says the Minister of the Olympics. Response after the event in a report from the Court of Auditors expected in autumn 2025.
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