At the beginning of this week, the Board of Directors of Paris 2024 approved the multi-year budget of the Organizing Committee (COJO) following a fourth budget revision that showed relative stability less than 230 days before the opening of the Games.
One year after presenting a budget increase of 400 million euros, the organizers of Paris 2024 were expected to justify their budget, especially as the final preparations for the Games have been underway this summer and the 200-day mark before the opening ceremony is approaching.
On Monday, December 11, 2023, the Board of Directors of Paris 2024 endorsed a revised multi-year budget balanced at 4.397 billion euros, representing a controlled increase of 17 million euros over one year, which is less than a 0.4% increase.
The increase in expenses this year is partly due to the development of the sites and the energy supply for these sites, both of which have been revised to the tune of 63.5 million euros for the former and 17 million euros for the latter.
Not surprisingly, the budget forecast for the artistic aspects related to the Opening Ceremony of the Games has been raised by 20 million euros.
The framing of the Ceremonies will be one of the key points to monitor in the strategy to maintain the budget balance of the 2024 Games.
In terms of revenue, Paris 2024 has appreciated the success of the Olympic Games ticket sales, which now have more than 7.5 million tickets sold, as well as the promising start of Paralympic Games ticket sales, although no sales figures have been disclosed at this time.
In the coming months, with the Games approaching, the opening of new stores and the sale of new licensed products will provide additional opportunities to increase COJO’s revenue, as recently discussed with the Executive Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which recently met in Paris.
COJO has gained new partnerships throughout 2023, with the most spectacular being the long-awaited arrival of LVMH as a Premium Partner of the Games in the middle of the summer.
However, cost control is now a legitimate source of satisfaction for the COJO, which worked last year and this year on a battery of cost adjustments, while also making sure not to suffer the full impact of an economic inflation that heavily impacted the previous revision by contributing 196 million euros to the overall budget surplus.
To achieve this cost control, the organizers of the 2024 Games still had to use part of the contingency reserve.
During the year 2023, the COJO drew 154 million euros from the reserve, including 60 million euros to offset the effects of inflation.
For the next nine months, the organizers intend to maintain a level of reserve that is considered protective.
While the Court of Auditors had recently mentioned the need for a minimum threshold of 100 million euros, Paris 2024 has decided to preserve 121 million euros, which is a slim margin of safety, especially considering that the last months before the Games are decisive and potentially risky in terms of budget.
