“Open the Games wider”. This is the call launched by the deputy Stéphane Mazars (Renaissance) to the State, diverting in passing the official slogan “Let’s open the Games wide” organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP). It therefore invites the public authorities, “given the high prices displayed by the ticket office”to do “an extra effort” on the acquisition of tickets for the summer 2024 event.
“The success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games requires strong popular enthusiasm” and the establishment of“a popular ticket office” is one of the elements underlines Mr. Mazars in his report for opinion, drafted on behalf of the National Assembly’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education, on the bill relating to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and various other provisions.
The State is committed at this stage to buy 400,000 tickets, with a financial commitment of 11 million euros – without detailing the division between tickets for the Olympic Games and tickets for the Paralympic Games. These places will be distributed to young people and schoolchildren, in priority to those under the age of 16, to people with disabilities and their carers, to state and local government officials who help prepare for the JOP, as well as only to volunteers.
In addition to these tickets that the State must acquire from the Organizing Committee of the Games (Cojop), the latter has also reserved 600,000 tickets for purchase by the local authorities hosting the Games. It also finances the supply of 100,000 tickets to disadvantaged people, notably through the local authorities involved.
The town hall of Paris also invited to buy more places
The interpellation of the government by Mr. Mazars comes as, 500 days from the opening of the Games, the first phase of ticket sales to the general public, completed in mid-March, has provoked frustrations and criticism, due to the complexity of the system (draw, sale by packs, rigidity in the combinations of sessions) and, above all, the level of the sums to be discharged.
At the end of this first phase, 3.25 million tickets were sold despite everything. And the Cojop, which wants to make Paris 2024 the Olympics “accessible” And “popular”argues that 400,000 seats at 24 euros (out of a million in total at this price, including 700,000 for the general public) have found takers, 70% of the seats sold not exceeding 100 euros.
Buying more tickets, given the prices deemed excessive, is also the request made in Paris by the environmental and communist allies of Mayor Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party, PS). They arrested her in this sense, Thursday, March 16. While the city must acquire 50,000 tickets, “it’s not enough, we’re asking for a lot more”declared the communist elected Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, calling Mme Hidalgo to ” to intervene “ with the Cojop so that it “revise its ticket office and give free tickets to Parisians”.
“I am not going to defend the Cojop strategy, we have not been associated with it”replied the sports and JOP assistant, Pierre Rabadan, acknowledging a first phase of sales “partly disappointing”. “The mayor of Paris made the request” additional tickets, “but it is difficult because there is an economic balance that we are asking Cojop”he added.
Ticketing is an essential element in the budget of the Cojop, since it represents a third of it, that is to say as much as the contribution paid by the International Olympic Committee and the sponsorship agreements. The organizers expect 1.24 billion euros in revenue from this item (excluding “hospitalities”, or the sale of tickets combined with other services). However, the Court of Auditors expressed reservations at the beginning of January on the “certainty” for the Cojop to achieve such an amount of revenue.
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