While the second phase of ticket sales for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) was a commercial success but, like the first phase, aroused frustration and indignation over the impossibility of accessing the competitions of one’s choice and, above all, over the level of the prices offered, the Minister of Sports and JOP, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra sought to defend, Tuesday, May 16 before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, the ticketing system put in place.
Assuring that “the State, the organizing committee [Cojop] and host communities pay particular attention to the goal of accessibility”MMe Oudéa-Castéra recalled that of the 10 million tickets on sale for the Olympic Games alone (there will be 3.5 million for the Paralympic Games), ” a million [de billets sont à] 24 euros for all sports, 50% at 50 euros and less and 10% at more than 200 euros”.
MMe Oudéa-Castéra assured that these prices “are totally in line with the pricing [en vigueur] in previous editions of the Games ». She even argued that “this facial equivalence, taking into account inflation, and if we therefore reason at purchasing power parity” make that “the prices offered by Paris 2024 are lower than those of previous editions”.
Comparisons with the price lists of Rio 2016 or London 2012 (Tokyo took place almost behind closed doors because of Covid-19) show that the prices for Paris are in the high range. If the entrance price to London was set at 23 euros, attending the handball or fencing qualifications, for example, cost half as much for the same category – respectively 57 and 73 euros against 140 and 150 euros.
One third of the budget
The Minister also recalled that the government’s objective is that “these Games do not weigh on public finances, that there is no Olympic Games tax” and that, therefore, “on doi[ve] accept that there are ticketing receipts which allow the most complete self-financing possible, at least on the Olympic side”.
Ticketing accounts for a third of the budget established by Paris 2024. To cope with the increase of more than 440 million euros in its projected expenditure, and to display a budget without a deficit, the organizing committee had to at the end of 2022, revise upwards a certain number of the revenues on which it is counting, including those which it intends to derive from ticketing: from 1.09 billion euros, it had raised its revenue forecast in this area to 1.24 billion euros.
“That there are a certain number of people who have the capacity and the desire to pay dearly, I want to say so much the better for the overall balance and the interests of the taxpayer”added the Minister, who also recalled that the State and the host communities will partly ensure the popular dimension of the Games by buying and distributing one million tickets free of charge, for the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games .
