by The final bill for the Paris Olympics is not yet known but, depending on the perspective, they are likely to be expensive compared to original estimates or cheap, when compared to other recent Games.
At the moment the total is approaching 9.0 billion euros ($9.66 billion dollars), but it is likely to reach 10 billion euros, making additional contributions from the government to the Olympic Games planned under the mantra ” The Games fund the Games”.
With 100 days to go before the flame is lit in the opening ceremony, “the risk zone is now”, a government source told AFP.
What is included in the cost of the Olympic Games may lead to different calculations.
The Tokyo Olympics, delayed by a year and held in 2021 during the Covid crisis, cost 12 billion euros according to Japan’s national auditors, almost double the estimate in their original proposal.
For Rio in 2016, hit by corruption, the local organizers estimated a total cost of 11.8bn euros, more than half of that on infrastructure.
Estimates for London in 2012 will be between 12 and 15 billion euros. For Beijing in 2008, calculations by outside experts run as high as 40 billion euros at current exchange rates. Athens in 2004, which added to the Greek government’s crippling debt, cost 13 billion euros.
For Paris, the responsibility for spending the money is shared between the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo), which is running the competition, and the Olympic Delivery Company (Solideo) which built the facilities. Higher-than-expected inflation exacerbated issues at both ends.
Cojo is already on course to raise more money from private sources, 4.4 billion euros, than the original estimate of 3.2 billion euros. In fact the original budget predicted perfect financial balance — a goal that has been abandoned.
Cojo is raising 1.24 billion euros from sponsors, 1.4 billion euros from ticket sales and receives 1.2 billion euros in funding from the International Olympic Committee.
Cojo’s costs include renting the Stade de France, fitting out the Olympic Village for the athletes, paying private security guards, temporary stands and dancers at the opening ceremony.
At the end of 2022, Cojo raised its budget by 10 percent, which it blamed on inflation. By that time, he had received an additional 111 million euros in public funding from the French government and local authorities, especially for the organization of the Paralympic Games, which take place after the Olympic Games.
The French Court of Audit said that Cojo had made the traditional Olympic error of overestimating his initial budget.
As a sign that the weather is difficult, Cojo recently asked the regional government to increase the cost of bus transport for accredited participants, a cost of 10-million-euro. The region refused.
The French government is keeping a close eye on Cojo’s finances. The government has given a 3bn-euro guarantee to cover deficits.
“At the moment, there is no reason to believe that there will be a deficit,” said Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera.
Solideo has received almost 1.8 billion euros, with a total budget of 4.4 billion euros, from national, regional and local governments. That includes 542 million euros towards the total 646-million-euro cost of building the Olympic Village, which will be a post-Games apartment.
– No hidden costs –
Other heritage features include the newly built Olympic aquatic centre, which will host diving, water polo and artistic swimming events, and a footbridge over the motorway that separates the swimming pool from the Stade de France, where athletics and rugby sevens will be held.
However, not all costs are known, including the exact price tag of security, including the 1,900-euro Olympic bonuses for police officers and other promised public service bonuses.
By 2023, budget documents showed that the public contribution of the Olympic Games had reached 2.44 billion euros (including 1.3 billion euros from the national government and 260 million euros from the city of Paris).
The President of the Court of Audit, Pierre Moscovici, recently increased his estimate of the final public contribution to “three, four or five billion euros”, saying that the final figure would only be known “after the Olympic Games”.
Oudea-Castera disagreed.
“There is no reason why it should be five billion euros,” she said, adding that there was no “budgetary current or hidden costs”.
Oudea-Castera also argued that even a final total bill close to 10 billion euros would be cheap compared to other Summer Olympics this millennium.
“These budgets are probably the most scrutinized in the history of the Olympic Games” and “the most constrained (in terms of organisation) in 20 years”, she said.
The final score will not be known until long after the final competition has finished.
The Court of Audit has been asked to provide a report by autumn 2025.
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