Along with an organizational budget that increases with inflation and unforeseen events, many of the costs of these coveted “sober” Games remain unknown, such as security. Each Olympic edition experiences a financial slippage, often several billion more than the initially planned budget. Last case to date, aggravated by the Covid health crisis and its postponement for one year: the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games cost 12,000 million euros according to the Japanese Court of Auditors, almost double that in the candidacy file.
Surplus of 2,200 million euros in just 6 years
In Paris, the addition shown is currently 8.8 billion euros, when in 2017 it was 6.6 billion. On the one hand, the budget of the organizing committee (Lame), which is based on income from ticket sales, that of sponsors and a contribution from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). With 96% of private origin, it amounted to 4.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, an increase of 10%, half due to inflation. It has increased by 600 million euros since 2018. On the other hand, Solideo (Olympic works delivery company), which is building the Olympic village in particular, has a budget of around 4.4 billion euros, including 1.71 billion public money. (State and communities).
But, in reality, this sum of 8,800 million does not include a whole series of costs. And the Court of Auditors observes in a report published in January: “this presentation, which mixes public spending and private spending of various kinds, is based on conventional perimeters that have evolved and, in any case, are not representative of ‘total spending actually done ‘.
In an interview published today in Le Parisien, the director general of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) denies any loss of budgetary control: “Eighteen months before the Games, we have completely revised everything to go from a projected budget to “One very specific things, in relation to the devices. Today, in an inflationary context that is not easy, we consider that we have a budget that allows us to deliver the Games in good conditions.”
At least half a billion euros for security?
The amount of 8.8 billion euros does not include, for example, security-related costs. For the public security forces, a “first estimate” cited in a preliminary report of the Court of Auditors of the summer of 2022 evokes “419 million euros”. But this figure could well grow because the device is not yet stagnant. And also to make sure that the police are available all summer, we will have to “give them a ‘forest of shit’!”, says an ex-policeman.
At this time, the State, in the 2023 budget documents, calculates an accumulated public expenditure for the Olympic Games of 2,166 million euros, including 1,157 million euros for the State. The bill will go up. In addition to security expenses, there will be some related to transportation, health, but also certain tax exemptions. Like the tax exemption granted to Omega, the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, and estimated “at about 4 million euros”, always according to the 2023 budget.
The actual invoice known only after the event.
However, an estimate published in January by Pierre Moscovici, president of the Court of Auditors: public investment by the State and communities could eventually reach “about 3,000 million euros.” A forecast because “the Court is not in a position, at this moment, to establish the real cost of the Games and their total impact on public finances.” And a “part will not be known until after the event.”
Sometimes it will be difficult to distinguish between what is bought exclusively for the Olympic Games or not: “The purchase of drones cannot be attributed to the Games to the extent that it would have occurred in the more or less long term independently of the Olympic Games and where they will continue to be used after the Games”, said the executive. Thus, the State has also recently added several million for the new anti-doping laboratory and that, according to him, is justified by the fact that France will have a high-level anti-doping laboratory after the Olympics.
The formula “the Games finance the Games” has already been undermined when the State and the communities decided to add 111 million euros at the end of 2022 to the budget of the organizing committee. “It is budgetary pragmatism”, explains a source close to the Olympic world, when asked about the transfer of small budget items, from the Lame to the Solideo, going back through the State. The actual bill will be known only after the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
Source: BFM TV
