COVID-19, inflation, and the Russia-Ukraine War are factors in the Paris financial problem,
Attention Salt Lake City 2030 or 2034 Olympic bidding committee members. Are you paying close attention to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics financial woes? The Paris Olympic organizers are admitting that the event is facing financial difficulties and that some “outside the box” thinking has to take place if the French backers don’t want to drown in a sea of red ink. Paris won the right to host the 2024 event in 2017. When the Paris backers landed the rights, they could not foresee supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic then rising fuel and food prices because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The cost of holding the 2024 Summer Olympics is rising far above the initial estimates of eight billion euros which now is roughly on par with the American dollar. The euro versus the dollar in 2017 fluctuated but the euro was worth more than the dollar. Inflation in France right now is around six percent. It is safe to say that without draconian cuts someone, and that someone more than likely will be France’s taxpayers, will have to make up the financial shortfalls. The International Olympic Committee requires that anyway.
So how do you stem the flow of red ink? Paris 2024 organizers want Olympics officials to use fewer courtesy cars and take more trips on public transport. That really is not going to make much of a dent in cost cutting measures. There are 22 more months before the opening ceremony in Paris and the world is a totally unpredictable place and that is a problem for the Paris backers, the 2026 Cortina Winter Olympic backers, the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic backers and the 2032 Queensland, Australia Summer Olympic backers. The IOC is scrambling to get interested parties to the table who might want the 2030 Winter Games. The Olympic events are just too expensive.
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