Paris 2024 Olympics cost skyrockets

Article posted by Coliseum, August 4^th, 2022

Image: Stade de France, Zakarie Faibis, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are two years away, but concerns over rising costs and the event’s security are already mounting.

‘Bloomberg’ stated that the total price tag of the Games has already increased to about 8.3 billion euros ($8.5 billion) including facilities and organization, from an initial budget of 6.8 billion euros announced in 2018, according to the Government.

But the final cost is likely to increase further as France boosts the event’s security and faces higher than planned costs for construction and materials.

The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and also known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multisport event scheduled to take place from July 26^th to August 11^th, 2024, with Paris as its main host city and 16 cities spread across Metropolitan France and one in the French overseas territory of Tahiti as subsites.

‘Bloomberg’ further stated that following a meeting between the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the event organizers recently, officials are confident that France will make the event – and its opening ceremony planned along the Seine – safe for spectators.

Extra Security

But the Government’s plan to line up up to 11,000 police agents on the ground each day, and up to 25,000 security agents, to make sure to avoid a rerun of chaos at a football match in May is set to add to the event’s budget which could also be affected by the rising inflation.

France is currently grappling with inflation that hit 6.5 percent in the month of June, however, the euro zone’s second-biggest economy has fared better than others due to Macron’s efforts to mitigate rising energy costs.

Noted Jean-Pascal Gayant, an economist specialized in sports, “Initial budgets for the Olympics are rarely sincere, and they overrun systematically.”

He estimates that all recent games have cost more than 10 billion euros, with more funds needed to complete construction works in time.

The organizing committee is seeking to increase resources coming from sponsors which include the French multinational telecommunications corporation Orange S.A. and the French international banking group BNP Paribas, the Government official said.

The Government expects that State and public authorities will contribute with around 1.7 billion euros, an official in Macron’s office told reporters during a briefing recently.

At the moment, there are no plans to increase planned ticket prices, the official added.

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