Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Paris Olympics organizers report a $28 million surplus from the 2024 Games.
- Record ticket sales and national marketing boosted revenues, despite increased expenditures.
- Surplus distribution includes funding sports development in France and Olympic committees.
PARIS — "Positive until the end." That's the headline in French media about the surplus from the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
The organizers of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics have announced there's the equivalent of just over $28 million in U.S. dollars left after hosting, an amount that "remains modest," according to a translation of an article posted Thursday on Francs Jeux, a French language website that covers international sports.
"Against all odds, the organizers of the Paris 2024 Games have achieved something that the Olympic movement had come to believe was impossible," the website reported, noting the surplus adds up to less than 1% of the overall Games budget of nearly 4.5 billion Euros, or around $4.7 billion.
The head of the Paris organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, was clearly proud of avoiding red ink.
"Ending the adventure with a positive result is a great source of pride for the whole team. It is the result of great seriousness and rigor from the very beginning," Estanguet is quoted by the website as saying recently.
A surge in revenues, especially from selling a record 12.1 million tickets, boosted the bottom line.
Ticket revenues were "through the roof," the website said, raising more than $1.56 billion, up some $365 million from the bid budget thanks to the addition of some pricey hospitality packages. Also ending "with a bang," was the national marketing program, collecting some $1.3 billion, an increase of about $150 million from projections and the highest in history for an event in France.
Expenditures were also up — by 17% — due to changes in the initial plans for Paris 2024 that included staging the lavish Opening Ceremonies along the Seine River, holding surfing competitions in Tahiti and adding sports like breakdancing, Francs Jeux reported. Inflation, organizers told the website, increased costs by as much as $419 million.
French law spells out how the surplus will be distributed, with 20% going to the International Olympic Committee and another 20% to France's national Olympic committee. The rest "must be used to finance actions and programs for the development of sport in France, at various levels," the report stated.
The public subsidies for the Paris Games added up to about $241 million, according to the Francs Jeux report, less than 5% of the organizing committee's budget. Those subsidies "were allocated in their entirety to financing the Paralympic Games, whose economic model remains less solid than that of the Olympic event," the website said.
The budget for hosting Utah's 2034 Winter Games is set to rely solely on privately funds, raised largely through the sale of broadcast rights, sponsorships and tickets. Utah's Olympic organizers expected to spend $2.83 billion, or around $4 billion if money for post-Games legacy and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's share of revenues is included.
