Paris 2024 Olympic Games: 4.5 billion euros… a budget finalized “without slippage” by the organizing committee

Tony Estanguet proud to complete the organization of the Games on a controlled budget. The president of the Cojo could complete his mission this Thursday. MAXPPP – AURELIEN MORISSARD/POOL

The Cojo has closed its accounts and even announced 27 million euros of surplus that will be paid to the sports movement. But the cost related to the mobilization of State services has not yet been precisely estimated.

The Paris Games Organizing Committee (Cojo) has completed its accounts. Its budget stands at 4.5 billion euros, with no slippage in recent months. It even generated a few million euros in surplus, part of which will be donated to the French sports movement.

End of mission this Thursday for Estanguet ?

“It is a great satisfaction to present these figures since they are positive”, said Tony Estanguet, the president of the Cojo, during a presentation to the press ahead of a Board of Directors meeting on Thursday. If the accounts are adopted on this occasion, Tony Estanguet plans to “complete his mission” of president at that time.

The budget is set at 4.481 billion euros. In 2018, it was 3.8 billion euros, higher than the 3.2 billion listed in the application file. “There is a surplus of 26.8 million euros”, specified Wednesday the financial director of the Cojo Fabrice Lacroix. The distribution of this surplus has not yet been decided even if it is statutorily provided that a part goes to the Olympic Committee (CNOSF), to the IOC as well as to the development of French sport for 60%. It is already planned “to pay back 9 million euros” to the CNOSF and the French Paralympic Committee (CPSF).

A larger share of ticket sales than expected

The budget of the Cojo is almost entirely private. It is based on sponsors (1.238 billion euros), the International Olympic Committee (1.228 billion euros) and ticket sales, which were higher than expected at 1.333 billion euros due to the “success of the event”. More than 12 million tickets were sold.

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The biggest increase in the budget (+10%) occurred at the end of 2022, in particular due to inflation. The Cojo then received a public funding boost of €111 million from the State and local authorities, mainly for the organisation of the Paralympic Games. In total, the public contribution represents less than a third of the cost of the Paralympics. Inflation has accounted for almost half of the budget increase since the beginning, explains the Cojo, the rest being due to the evolution of the project: additional sports, ceremonies…

A total cost of 9 billion with the construction of the works

The Cojo does not want to specify the cost of the opening ceremony on the Seine but only the total figure for the four ceremonies: 154 million euros.

Added to the budget of Solideo (Olympic Works Delivery Company), which built the Olympic village in particular, of around 4.4 billion euros (of which around 1.7 billion euros was public money), the bill is almost 9 billion (compared to 6.8 billion euros forecast in 2018). But it does not represent the total cost of the Games because the entire public bill is not known.

Cheaper than the Tokyo, London and Athens Olympics

According to Senate budget documents, the cost of security, still provisionally estimated and including bonuses for police officers, exceeds one billion euros, “higher than anticipated”. In the Assembly, the general budget rapporteur, Charles de Courson (Liot), had reported in November elements from the Ministry of Finance on “1.9 billion euros” not budgeted for the Olympics. The Court of Auditors will issue a report on the subject in the fall of 2025.

Read also: Paris 2024 Olympics: Games worth nearly 9 billion euros, "without budgetary excesses or hidden costs", assures Minister Oudéa-Castéra

In total, predicts a former elected official, “everyone will say + it cost more than expected but given the image we left, it is well worth this overrun”. The Tokyo Olympics, aggravated by the Covid crisis and their postponement by one year, to 2021, cost 12 billion euros, almost twice as much as in the bid file. In London (2012), according to estimates, they cost between 12 and 15 billion euros. In Athens, in 2004, the Olympics, which increased the deficits of the Greek state, had cost 13 billion euros.