04 Apr 2018
Paris Olympic organisers warned of €500m 'overspend'
BY Tom Walker
A French government watchdog has warned that the cost of hosting the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games could run €500m (US$615m, £438m) over budget, if "remedial action" isn't taken.
The report – compiled by the government's finance, sports and infrastructure inspectors – called for plans for the Olympic Village to be revised and proposals for a media village and aquatics centre to be scaled back, with the cutbacks shaving up to €300m (US$386m, £262m) from the total cost. Inspectors also called plans for the volleyball and badminton courts "abnormally expensive", predicting an overspend of around €50m (US$61m, £44m) on a budget of €172m (US$211m, £150m).
When it won the bid, the Comité de Candidature de Paris 2024 set its Games budget at €6.8bn (US$8.3bn, £5.9bn).
In response to the report, France's sports minister, Laura Flessel, defended the current plans.
"The report didn't say we will exceed the budget, but rather 'this is what you have to do to meet the budget'," she said.
The government report was published just days after the completion of the first Project Review between the International Olympic Committee and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee.
Held in Paris at the end of March, the review confirmed the two bodies’ "shared ambition" to deliver a project within a "controlled and responsible budgetary framework".
Paris was named host of the 2024 Games in September 2017, ending two decades of heart-ache – the city had previously lost out in the bidding for both the 2008 and 2012 Games. 2024 will mark 100 years since the city last held the Games.
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