Text | Ma Lianhong
On the occasion of the 500-day countdown to the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Paris Organising Committee unveiled the details of the first phase of ticket sales: in the first three weeks of ticket sales, 3.25 million tickets were sold, and fans from 158 countries bought tickets during this phase, two-thirds of which went to the French. In addition, compared with the previous Olympic ticket sales, the proportion of female spectators in the ticket buying crowd has increased, reaching 45%, and the young group has also increased, and 44% of the ticket buyers are under the age of 35.
At present, the Paris Olympic Games has 14 TOP sponsors, 5 senior partners, 8 official partners, and 17 official suppliers. According to foreign media estimates, the Paris Olympics have received 900 million euros (6.6 billion yuan) in sponsorship, some way from the overall goal of 1.1 billion euros (8.1 billion yuan), and the organizing committee has set itself a goal of achieving 92% of the sponsorship target by the end of 2023.
More than three million tickets were sold for the Paris Olympics
The Paris Olympic Games launched the first round of ticket purchase on December 1, 2022, with spectators registering on the official website within the specified time, and then the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee conducting a lottery, and the lucky winners will receive an exclusive ticket purchase period of 48 hours. This time period, known as "Make Your Games", means that the winner can choose their own "ticket package" (each package includes three tickets for the competition) according to their own circumstances.
According to the statistics of the organizing committee, the first stage of ticket sales includes all competitions except surfing, and tickets for rock climbing and freestyle BMX are all sold on the day of ticket release. Fencing, judo, breakdancing and track cycling are also popular, with tickets sold out within a few days. More than 400,000 tickets sold for €24 were sold, with about 70% selling for less than €100 and 4.5% selling €200 or more.
A total of 10 million tickets will be sold for the Paris Olympics, 80% of which will be directed to the general public. On March 15, the day of the 500-day countdown to the Paris Olympics, the organizing committee opened the second phase of ticket sales. As in the first phase, there will be a lottery, and the winning users can start buying their favorite tournament tickets on May 11. Each registered user can purchase a total of 30 Olympic tickets during the two ticket purchase stages.
In addition, tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies will also go on sale in the second phase. For the high-profile opening ceremony on the Seine, the organizing committee expects to sell 70,000 tickets. Foreign media expect revenue from tickets alone to reach 1.24 billion euros (excluding hospitality), about 9.14 billion yuan, including 109 million euros, or about 800 million yuan, for the opening ceremony on the Seine.
However, although most of the tickets for the first phase were bought by the French, this did not prevent them from thinking that tickets for the event were too expensive. According to a survey released recently, the vast majority of French people (82%) believe that tickets to watch the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are unaffordable, and 79% of French believe that it is not easy to buy tickets for Olympic events from a procedural point of view.
The Paris Olympics have received 900 million euros in sponsorship
As the 500-day countdown to the Paris Olympics begins, French President Emmanuel Macron specially invited sponsors and potential partners to lunch, which the French media believes is because the Paris Olympics still lack a quality sponsor.
At present, the Paris Olympic Games has 14 TOP sponsors such as Alibaba, Mengniu and Panasonic (top sponsors of the IOC), 5 senior partners of banking group BPCE, power company EDF, telecom group Orange, pharmaceutical company Sanofi and retail giant Carrefour, 8 official partners of food group Danone, sports brand Decathlon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and 17 official suppliers.
French media estimate that the Paris Olympics have received a total sponsorship of 900 million euros (6.6 billion yuan), some way from achieving the overall goal of 1.1 billion euros (8.1 billion yuan), and the organizing committee has set itself a goal of obtaining 92% of the sponsor budget by the end of 2023.
Considered to be the sixth premium partner LVMH Louis Vuitton, the signing has been waiting for months. It has become an open secret that LVMH Louis Vuitton has been negotiating with the Paris Organising Committee for months, and IOC President Bach had dinner with LVMH Louis Vuitton Chairman Bernard Arnault in December 2022. Louis Vuitton was a sponsor of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid committee and is therefore considered a potential partner by the Olympic Organizing Committee.
However, rather than being a senior partner in the Paris Olympics, Louis Vuitton wants to be the highest level sponsor in order to make an impact globally, not just in France. According to foreign media estimates, the two sides will reach cooperation in the next few weeks.
Due to inflation, security and other reasons, the Paris Olympics have raised the budget several times
Behind the Organising Committee's rush to find sponsors is the rising cost of hosting the Games, which according to a number of French media may exceed expectations. Since 2018, the provisional cost of the Paris Olympic Games has risen from 6.8 billion to 8.3 billion euros, of which 4.3 billion euros will be used for the construction of Olympic venues and 4 billion euros will be functional expenses for the operation of the Olympic Organizing Committee. Despite President Emmanuel Macron's announcement at the end of September 2022 that he would increase his budget by 150 million euros, public financial subsidies that are a drop in the bucket cannot outpace inflation.
At the end of December 2022, the Organising Committee submitted new budget amendments that would raise the budget by 10% (to €4.38 billion), while in its report the Court of Audit said it was not yet possible to assess the overall cost of hosting the Games. In fact, it has long been common to spend much higher than expected to host the Olympics in the past, with total spending on the Tokyo Olympics exceeding US$20 billion (120 billion yuan), up from US$7.4 billion at the time of the initial bid, according to Japanese government auditors.
In addition to the budget increase due to inflation, the security budget will also increase. In 2017, when the budget was first announced, the security budget for the Paris Olympics was 250 million euros (about 1.8 billion yuan), while the security costs for the 2012 London Olympics were 1.16 billion euros. The Court of Auditors requires that this part be at least doubled at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The unique opening ceremony will also increase the budget of the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee, which will be transferred from the traditional stadium to the Seine and under the Eiffel Tower, and more than 10,000 athletes will enter from east to west along the Seine in more than 160 boats, which is expected to be watched by 600,000 spectators along the Seine.
Such an opening raised a more vexing issue of organizational coherence and concerns in the security sector. Some security experts say that such a close place to the water's edge, an uncontrolled flow of people would be dangerous. It is also difficult to ensure security overlooking the buildings in such a long stretch of water, with 35,000 security forces expected to be on duty at the opening ceremony.
Note: The images used in this article are from Osports All-Sports