Paris takes step toward bidding for 2024 Olympics

Mayor Anne Hidalgo delivers her speech after receiving the results of a feasibility study on hosting the 2024 games in Paris

Paris moved a step closer to bidding for the 2024 Olympics yesterday when Mayor Anne Hidalgo welcomed the results of a feasibility study on bringing the games back to the capital after a 100-year absence.
Hidalgo, who received the feasibility study during a ceremony at city hall, said “decisive steps” have been made toward a Paris candidacy. With the support of French President Francois Hollande already secured, convincing Hidalgo to give her approval has been the main task of French Olympic officials in recent months.
Last November, Hidalgo said she was concerned about the costs, the environmental impact and the specter of white elephants if France hosted the games.
Although she did not give her go-ahead, the mayor seemed to embrace the project brought forward by Bernard Lapasset, who heads the French Committee for International Sport and would lead the French bid with IOC member Tony Estanguet if Paris decides to go forward.
Hidalgo said she was pleased with the financial and environmental guarantees in the study, but still needs to consult with members of the Paris city council and nearby cities that could be involved before making a decision on whether to bid. An announcement is expected in April.
“The fact that the IOC recently adopted 40 proposals in favor of sustainability and that the Olympic movement will fund the bid up to 1.8 billion euros (USD2 billion) has boosted everything,” Hidalgo said. “But we still need to define precisely our economic model.”
Paris estimates an infrastructure budget for the Olympics of 3 billion euros ($4.5 billion), with operational costs of 3.2 billion euros ($4.8 billion).
Because of France’s economic struggles, no public money will be spent if the country decides to go ahead, officials have said. If Paris gets the games, state and local authorities would only contribute up to 50 percent of the operational costs.
Paris last hosted the Olympics in 1924 and mounted unsuccessful bids for the 1992, 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Rome and Boston are the only declared candidates so far for 2024. Germany will decide between Hamburg and Berlin as its candidate. Other possible contenders include a city or region in South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Budapest, Hungary.
The deadline for submission of preliminary bids to the IOC is Sept. 15. The host city will be selected in 2017.
After recently saying France would be unable to bid for both the 2025 World Expo and the 2024 Olympics, Hidalgo backpedalled Thursday and said the two events could be pursued at the same time.
The mayor said seeing the global reaction to the terror attacks in Paris that left 20 people dead last month made her realize how much people care for the French capital.
“It was a determining fact that sped up our work,” Hildago said. Samuel Petrequin, Paris, AP