Monday, December 12. The date is highlighted in the agenda of the main actors of the Olympic and Paralympic meeting of Paris 2024 (from July 26 to August 11, then from August 28 to September 8). On that day, the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop), one of the two structures created to set up the event – the other is the Olympic Works Delivery Company (Solideo), responsible of the construction of the sites –, will convene its Board of Directors. On the menu: the presentation of an updated budget.
This appointment is anything but a formality. Inflation, security challenge, difficult quest for financial partners… For several months, Paris 2024 has been facing headwinds. With a risk: the drift of budgets. The past Olympics are on everyone’s mind, their organization having most of the time been a money pit.
“No slippage will be tolerated, both at the level of the Cojop [financé à 97 % par de l’argent privé] than Solideo [financée pour un peu plus de 40 % par de l’argent public] »recalled Michel Cadot, the interministerial delegate to the Games, speaking at the National Assembly at the end of September. “There will be no OJ tax”, had warned Emmanuel Macron, on July 25, during an Olympic and Paralympic council at the Elysée. Implied: public money will not plug the holes.
The coming weeks promise to be critical for the Cojop, which must find the means to present balanced accounts. At the end of June, the audit committee, set up in 2018, warned: as it stands, planned expenses exceed expected revenues. Two years ago, the Cojop had already had to find some 300 million euros in savings.
Inflation, bad surprise guest
The “leeway” are “increasingly reduced”, recognizes Tony Estanguet, its president. Sign of the difficulty, while he refused to do so so far, the organizer has planned to draw – without specifying the amount – from his contingency reserve of 315 million euros, as declared by the Minister sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on October 12 in front of senators.
Inflation is the bad surprise guest. The war in Ukraine led to an increase in prices that was impossible to predict at the beginning of the year. To cover the increase until 2025, Solideo has planned an extension of around 150 million euros to its budget. This surplus – the exact figure must be refined by a board meeting in mid-December – will be financed by the State to the tune of 96 million. The remaining third will go to the local authorities involved (City of Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis department, Greater Paris metropolis and Ile-de-France region).
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