Paris Seeks to Avoid Olympic Gigantism

(ATR) Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet says meetings at SportAccord have reinforced the idea that the Olympics "cannot be bigger and bigger" with each new host.

Estanguet briefed the media in Bangkok on the Paris 2024 organizing committee's progress during the last few months. Since being awarded the 2024 Games in Lima at the 2017 IOC Session, Paris 2024 has formed an organizing committee, passed a necessary Olympic law in parliament, and began discussions on a commercial program.

The organizing committee has also heard a number of studies on the cost and scope of the Games. Recently, a report by the French inspectors-general of finance, sport and environment warned that spending for the 2024 Olympics could go over budget by as much as $616 million.

Estanguet downplayed the worries of overspending, saying organizers will use this year to develop a concrete plan to avoid any changes that could blow up the budget. In Thailand, Estanguet said that Paris 2024 is meeting with both federations and the IOC to work to integrate Agenda 2020 and ideas from the "new norm" bidding process as inspiration to cut costs and develop the sport program. One way to do that is to tamp down on the size of the Games to prevent them from growing larger than Tokyo.

"We support this logic of having the control of the size of the Games because if we continue to make it bigger it will be harder and harder to find new organizers for the coming years," Estanguet said. "We hold up this responsibility to control the cost of the Games and control the size of the number of athletes. This is a good timing for us because we are also in this mindset to control the size of the Games."

Two venues have given Paris organizers extra consideration during this planning year, the aquatics center and the Olympic Village. Estanguet said that Paris 2024 is working to develop a plan to present to the IOC during the first Coordination Commission visit to the French capital.

The aquatics center will be located in the Parisian department of Saint Denis, and worries over the cost of the venue and the cost to maintain it have plagued preparations. Estanguet says there is no plan to move the venue out of Saint Denis, saying it will remain an important legacy for the youth of the area.

"The idea is just to find the best model to make sure the legacy will be effective and the cost will be reasonable; that’s the main challenge," Estanguet said. "We want to use the coming months to look at all the different studies to maintain the cost.

"We want to maintain the public investment of $1.5 billion. This is a priority not to increase this investment. The second is the fact that this investment must be focused on Saint Denis; this is a territory we want for the legacy to have an impact and that will remain the case. We want also to control this investment, so if we have to reduce some of the legacies that we will leave we will do it."

Along with shoring up venue and legacy plans, Paris 2024 has explored the beginnings of its marketing program. Estanguet says organizers expect to announce the first set of sponsors by December to begin activation when rights start in 2019.

Amid a flurry of activity, Estanguet says that organizers are seeking to take advantage of a French project that he says enjoys a rare breadth of political support. Organizers have been challenged by President Emmanuel Macron to promote the country in an innovative way. Also, Estanguet said that the organizing committee is "working very well" with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and that city officials are sharing office space with Paris 2024.

"We have teams working together the same side," Estanguet added. "It was important to have the [the city and the OCOG] working at the same headquarters, and then we have launched a project review."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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