'Games Wide Open' a worry for Paris 2024

PARIS • Organisers of the 2024 Paris Olympics unveiled "Games Wide Open" as their official slogan on Monday and announced prices for tickets which fans can start to apply for from December.

The slogan was released alongside a video promising the Olympics and Paralympics would be "faster", "higher" and "stronger" - as well as "more inclusive, more brotherly, more beautiful". It is "an invitation to the entire world to come to experience new emotions, together. Our Games are a promise of unprecedented experiences and powerful feelings", the organisers said.

A total of 13 million tickets will be sold for the two events, with nearly half of tickets reserved for the public set to be sold at less than €50 (S$71). Outside the opening and closing ceremonies, prices for events will range from €24 to a maximum of €950. Fans are invited to enter a draw for tickets from December. Packages comprising tickets for three separate events will be available from €72 and will go on sale from February.

Also on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron gathered senior ministers to discuss growing concerns about costs and security for the mega event with two years to go to the opening ceremony on July 26, 2024.

The meeting at the Elysee Palace included key ministers like Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera and Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris organising committee.

"We are two years to the day from the start of the Games. Now it's really a race against the clock," Mr Macron said in an interview with L'Equipe published yesterday.

The Olympics organising committee Cojo has a budget of €4 billion, as does its partner organisation Solideo, which is charged with building the peripheral infrastructure. But rising inflation means cuts have to be made and so far, insufficient sponsors have been found to plug the gaps.

"Everything is very tight concerning the budget," said a source.

An Elysee official said a "dialogue had started" with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over where savings can be made.

"I reaffirmed a simple principle: there will be no Olympics tax. The Games must finance the Games," insisted Mr Macron, who also met IOC president Thomas Bach.

Security is also a particular headache, especially as the vision of the Games is to hold many events in the centre of Paris. This includes events around the Eiffel Tower and the central Place de la Concorde, which is close to the president's Elysee Palace.

France's reputation as a reliable host of sporting events took a major hit over the chaos that marred the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Paris on May 28 that critics blamed on heavy-handed policing.

A particular subject of anxiety is the ambitious vision of an opening ceremony which will not take place in an athletics stadium but as a flotilla down the River Seine.

In addition to the French security forces, over 20,000 private security agents need to be hired to ensure the Games can proceed.

France's top audit body, the Cour des Comptes, warned that it was "imperative" to ramp up preparations for the "considerable" security challenge of the Games. It suggested scaling down the ambitious opening ceremony, which is set to feature an armada of 200 boats and some 600,000 spectators.

The Le Monde daily said the prospect of the river opening ceremony - with spectators packed on the banks of the Seine - was giving the organisers "cold sweats".

Some 10 million spectators are expected overall but projects to improve Paris' ramshackle transport infrastructure, notably with two new metro lines, will not be ready when the Games begin.

The Olympics will also pose a unique logistical challenge. The athletics and swimming events are due to be held in Seine-Saint-Denis north of Paris, and a cluster of events in the centre of the capital.

Sixteen other venues across France will also host competitions, with sailing events at the other end of the country in Marseille.

Surfing will be in the Pacific territory of French Polynesia, on the other side of the world.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA