the Organizing Committee draws from its reserve to keep the Games budget in balance

This is the last budget revision before summer 2024 for the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop). Unlike the previous time, the presentation of the Paris 2024 budget to the board of directors, Monday December 11, did not give rise to any major change in the total envelope for the organization of the global sporting event.

She is even of a “great budgetary stability”according to Fabrice Lacroix, the administrative and financial director of Cojop, who announced a very slight increase of 17 million euros in the budget, now increased to 4.397 billion euros (+ 0.38%), like the daily The Team indicated Friday.

Compared to the increase of 400 million euros to which Cojop had to resolve at the end of 2022, the 2023 budget review appears almost as a non-event. Except that, on closer inspection, it appears that Paris 2024 has drawn quite a bit from the reserve it had set up to take into account uncertainties and inflation. Of the 275 million still provisioned a year ago, the organizer used 154 million euros in order to cope, essentially, with higher than expected expenses on the temporary infrastructures of the Games.

The optimization of energy sources costs an additional 17 million euros, details Fabrice Lacroix, who also highlights adjustments to the management of operations on sites, to the development of sites (+ 63.5 million euros) – such as a longer duration of assembly and dismantling of the installations –, or even the reassessment of the artistic style of the opening ceremony (+20 million).

“However, we are retaining 121 million euros in our reserve, above the level requested by the Court of Auditors”nuance the financial director of Paris 2024 – in a report published in July, the financial magistrates recommended maintaining a minimum cushion of 100 million euros.

“No alert on expenses”

The balance of this reserve must be used in particular to get through the last areas of turbulence in the next three or four months. The closer the Games get, the greater the risk of slippage or unforeseen costs. “But there is no alert on this or that expenditure item”wants to reassure Fabrice Lacroix, according to whom, one thing is certain, “the reserve for contingencies will most certainly be consumed” to maintain a balanced budget. On the question of security, Paris 2024 insists on the fact that the allocated budget is maintained at 320 million euros, after having been increased by 25 million a year ago, and that today it represents more “an operational risk rather than a budgetary risk”.

On the revenue side, Paris 2024 can boast of increasing revenues – albeit modest – from domestic partnerships (+14 million) and from ticketing (+5 million), two of the three pillars of its budget with the contribution of the Committee. Olympic international. Cojop thus explains that it has, thanks to the signing of LVMH in July, already met 97% of its sponsor objective of 1.2 billion euros. All that remains is to conclude with one last official partner, known as tier 2, to complete its budget. The installation of a new grandstand for equestrian events in Versailles also allows it to free up additional resources.

The organizer, on the other hand, had to revise its forecasts, much too optimistic by its own admission, on revenues from hospitality (ticketing associated with high-end services), the marketing of which is ensured exclusively by the company On Location . A downward revaluation of 20 million euros, largely offset by investment income boosted by 18 million euros by the rise in interest rates. A little less than eight months before the opening ceremony, the budget for organizing the Games has seen “a controlled development of 15.5% since the application phase, lower than overall inflation over the period 2015-2023”argues Paris 2024. A controlled development perhaps, but all the specialists say it: it is in the home stretch that the risk of slippage is greatest.