The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is satisfied with the preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. “We are leaving Paris with a great level of confidence”said Wednesday, June 7, the chairman of the Games Coordination Commission, Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujants, after three days of meetings and visits with the Games Organizing Committee (Cojop). “Mass is not said, he added, however, but Tony Estanguet [le président du Cojop] and its teams are where they need to be with 415 days to go”.
The IOC representative particularly wanted to point out that, ” for the first time ” in the history of the preparation for the Games, “we don’t have to worry about the buildings” Olympic venues. “They are on time and beautifully done.”
The Paris 2024 Games project has the particularity, compared to previous editions of the Olympic Games, of having been developed by focusing on the construction of a very small number of sites (these come under Solideo, the entity in place, alongside the Cojop, to prepare for these Games).
“It is important to receive the congratulations of the IOC. We come out of these three days with a lot of serenity for the future »declared for his part Tony Estanguet. “The first lesson, is that the IOC recognizes that we are on time, that the schedule is respected on all dimensions”he insisted, citing in particular the budgetary aspect.
“No hard point” in the report of the Court of Auditors
On this point, the Court of Auditors, in a report which it is to submit to Parliament, nevertheless considers that “great uncertainties” remain: the financial magistrates consider that there is still to be done, for the Cojop, to maintain the level of expenditure planned and to bring in the anticipated receipts so that in the end the budget is in balance.
While claiming to take “with great attention to the recommendations of this new report”Tony Estanguet said to see in its content “confirmation of the good progress of the project”. “There is no hard point in this report that worries”he added.
If he had declared on Monday that “we live in a difficult world, a world of inflation, a world where commercial partnerships are also more difficult to find”, Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujants assured, at the end of his visit, that “the income [de Paris 2024] are progressing and are on track to achieve, by the end of the year, 92% of the total objective to be achieved”.
In its report, the Court of Auditors writes, however, that the amount of revenue expected by Cojop remains subject to “substantial uncertainties”. She particularly points to the contracts expected by Paris 2024 with national partners (1.22 billion euros out of a total budget of 4.38 billion): “337.2 million euros remain to be secured” in this area, the financial magistrates are responsible.
A “premium” partnership with LVMH, or nothing
At the forefront of contracts to “must conclude” according to the terms of the Court of Auditors, is the one under discussion with the luxury group LVMH: “announced to the tune of 140 million euros”, this “premium” partnership is not still not signedrecalls the Court.
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What Tony Estanguet confirmed: “This agreement is not signed. It would bring a different dimension to Paris 2024,” he explained, inviting ” to be careful “. In any case, for Paris 2024 it will be LVMH or nothing: Tnoy Estanguet and his teams are not considering seeking other first-class partners.
The Cojop assured the Court of Auditors that in “the state of the current negotiations”including those with LVMH, “probable additional resources” that would have been preempted would be located “at 270 million euros”which would leave “a gap of 67 million euros to fill”.
In terms of expenditure, the Court of Auditors insists, in its report, on the need for Paris 2024 and the State to continue “with firmness the negotiations” with the IOC on the alleviation of the requirements and constraints that it traditionally imposed on the host city (estimated at 30 million euros), which “do not seem to be acquired or in the process of being fully acquired at this stage”. “We are working to materialize these different points”, assured Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujants. “Some are already, others are still in progress”.
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