Board of directors | Paris 2024 final budget in surplus by at least 26.8 million euros
[Note from the Editor: we are honoring the British spelling used below in its original form.]
The Paris 2024 Board of Directors met on Thursday 12 December 2024 at the Maison du sport français, the headquarters of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). Paris 2024 and its stakeholders adopted the final budget for the project, showing a surplus of at least €26.8 million. The Board of Directors also presented the environmental and climate report for the Games of Paris 2024: the commitment to halve the carbon footprint of the Games has been met.
Paris 2024's final budget adopted: a surplus of at least €26.8 million to be paid back to sport when the Organising Committee is wound up
The Paris 2024 Board of Directors adopted the Organising Committee's final multi-year budget following the fifth and final budget review. Following the popular, operational and sporting success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Paris 2024 will generate a surplus budget of at least €26.8 million, with revenue of €4,480.7 million and expenditure of €4,453.9 million.
The financial trajectory adopted was established on a deliberately cautious and conservative basis, based on certain revenues and all possible expenses - even if they have not yet been incurred. Paris 2024's final budget therefore includes a protective provision set up to cover the final residual risks and potential contingencies. All or part of this provision may be released when the Organising Committee is wound up and may be added to the surplus presented to date.
This budget surplus of at least €26.8 million will be paid back to sport when the Organising Committee is wound up.
A successful budget thanks to strong revenue dynamics
With 12.1 million tickets sold, Paris 2024 recorded record ticketing and hospitality revenues, demonstrating the success of the Games. With projected sales of €1,489 million, Paris 2024 exceeded its ticketing and hospitality revenue target set at the time of the bid by €348 million.
The target for domestic partnerships, the highest ever for the organisation of an event in France, was also exceeded by €150 million, reaching a total of €1,238 million.
This sharp rise in additional revenue (up 18% on the forecast budget defined at the time of the bid), mainly from private sources, enabled the Organising Committee to cover all the additional expenditure incurred.
Costs kept under control despite inflation and the extension of the project's scope
Paris 2024's increase in expenditure is the smallest (+17% compared to the forecast budget defined at the time of the bid) recorded by an Organising Committee for the Games in the modern era between the bid and the delivery of the Games. At least half of this additional expenditure is linked to the global inflation shock that occurred at the beginning of 2022, at a key moment for the Organising Committee when it still had almost 90% of its budget to spend.
The other half of the additional expenditure is attributable to an extension of the scope of the project. On the one hand, the Organising Committee was obliged to incur additional expenditure, for example to reinforce the security arrangements for which the organiser was responsible in view of the changing security context and the increased threats. Compared with the resources allocated in the bid, an additional €100 million was committed, i.e. 10 times more resources than were allocated in London 2012. At the same time, the additional expenditure incurred by Paris 2024 was a winning investment for the project.
Additional expenditure to strengthen the vision, influence and appeal of the project
The additional expenditure incurred by Paris 2024 strengthened the vision, influence and appeal of the project. The decision to hold the opening ceremonies in the city raised the profile of France and Paris around the world like never before. These ceremonies enabled the last Premium Partner of Paris 2024 to be signed up, and increased enthusiasm for the Games. For example, the day after the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, Olympic ticket sales jumped by 26% and Paralympic ticket sales by 83%.
The addition of four new sports, including three new urban sports, to renew, diversify and rejuvenate the Games' audience, contributed to the success of ticket sales and the mobilisation of partners. Investments in innovative public engagement projects such as the Club Paris 2024, the supporters' squares, the Parc des Champions, the Terre de Jeux label and the Mass Event Running helped to make the Games a popular success.
Paris 2024 had also made commitments to the host country in terms of legacy and social and societal responsibility: a legacy programme whose cost almost tripled compared to the bid budget; expenditure to meet the commitment to deliver more environmentally and climate-responsible Games; and the largest cultural programme ever put in place during the Games to bring together sport and culture.
Paris 2024 is able to relieve its stakeholders of some of their financial commitments
In total, public subsidies (€204.1 million) accounted for less than 5% of the Organising Committee's total budget and were entirely earmarked for funding the Paralympic Games to promote Paralympic athletes and a change in the way disability is viewed in France. Public funding represents less than one-third of the cost of the Paralympic Games, compared with 50% in previous editions.
In view of its good budgetary results, Paris 2024 will not be calling on the various sources of financing, totalling €43 million, that the public stakeholders had guaranteed it in case of need.
As a result, Paris 2024 will not have to call on the State for the €12 million guarantee granted in return for maintaining an ambitious target in the face of the risk of a potential decline in Paralympic ticket sales. Nor will Paris 2024 have to call on the residual State guarantee granted during the bid in respect of lottery revenues (€13 million).
Paris 2024 will not be requesting the additional subsidies that the City of Paris (€7.5 million), the Region (€5 million) and the Greater Paris Metropolitan Area (€5 million) had undertaken to submit to their respective assemblies in the event of a deterioration in the economic balance of the Paralympic Games.
In addition, Paris 2024 will be able to apply the profit-sharing clause provided for in the contracts with the CNOSF and the CPSF, and to retrocede to them, before the distribution of the surplus, a share of the increase in commercial revenue that has occurred since the bid, i.e. a total of €9 million.
Goal of halving the Games' carbon footprint achieved
The Board of Directors also presented the environmental and climate report for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 (see attached).
The flagship commitment to halve the carbon footprint of the Games has been met, with Paris 2024's carbon footprint showing a 54.6% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the average for the London 2012 and Rio 2016 editions (Tokyo 2020 is not taken into account because the edition was held without international spectators).
With its concept of Games in the city and its temporary facilities at the foot of the most beautiful monuments, Paris 2024 proposed a delivery model that was more circular and more respectful of the environment. Never before has an Organising Committee paid so much attention to the second life of the equipment and resources used for the Games, with the vast majority of equipment rented out, donations made to associations and the French sports movement, the success of the Games' auction sales and the second life platform for professionals.
The objectives of reducing waste and the quantity of single-use plastic used in catering, as well as protecting biodiversity have also been achieved.
While the major results of the actions to make the Games more economically and socially responsible were already detailed at the Board of Directors meeting in October 2024, the publication of the Sustainability and Legacy report is also an opportunity to complete this assessment with the achievements in terms of social inclusion. In total, between March and September 2024, Paris 2024 counted more than 1.5 million hours of social integration work carried out on its contracts for more than 6,700 beneficiaries, nine "Les Jeux recrutent" [The Games are hiring] job forums organised, and 181,000 jobs created as part of the Games.
About Paris 2024
The mission of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 Organising Committee, in accordance with the host city contract signed between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français (CNOSF – French National Olympic and Sporting Committee) and the Ville de Paris municipal authorities, is to plan, organise, fund and deliver the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the greatest sporting event in the world, with unparalleled media impact. They bring together 10,500 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes, respectively from 206 and 184 delegations, across five continents. They are watched by over 13 million spectators and billions of viewers across the world, across a total of over 100,000 hours of TV broadcasting. They are without equal in sporting, economic and cultural events throughout the world, and this power helps to further their impact.
Set up in January 2018, Paris 2024 is headed by Tony Estanguet, three-time Olympic champion. It is run by a Board of Directors, on which sit all the founding members of the project: the CNOSF, Ville de Paris, the French Government, the Île-de-France regional authority, the CPSF, the Métropole du Grand Paris, the Conseil départemental de Seine Saint-Denis, representatives of the local authorities involved in the Games, civil society and corporate partners.
