“When we talk about these Games, they are the Games of the French”, declared last April the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games of France, Amélia Oudéa-Castéra.
But is this really the case? The 15 million tourists expected in the metropolis, soaring housing prices and the inaccessibility of tickets cool many Parisians, who feel dispossessed of an event that promises to be historic.
“We Parisians can’t take it anymore. The exasperation in Stéphanie Girerd’s voice is palpable. At the end of the line, she reports on the many construction sites which make travel even more complicated than usual in the agglomeration of the capital, which has more than ten million inhabitants. Their objective ? Reinforce the public transport network in view of the Olympic Games (OG).
If the work gives headaches to the fifty-year-old, who has lived in the city for three decades, the result promises to be very useful in the long term: Orly airport will be connected to the metro from June 2024. And the construction or expansion of several metro and fast train lines have been accelerated by the imminent holding of the Olympic Games, even if several will not be ready in time for the event.
“But to catch up on the work, the existing lines are often stopped early in the evening”, recalls Mme Girard. “We can’t wait for the Olympics to be over so that we can take advantage of all these infrastructures and the fact that there will be no more work, and that we will have a very clean city”, she muses before returning to reality. “At the moment it is painful. »
“A shot of money to make”
Tourists planning to visit Paris in the summer of 2024 will be able to see the best athletes on the planet there, but probably very few Parisians. And for good reason: for the inhabitants, the opportunity is too good to rent their accommodation at a high price.
“I intend to rent my apartment, because I expect it to be a mess,” laughs Nathalie Lesage, contacted in France. The Quebecer — who has lived in the City of Light for ten years — recently bought an apartment in the 19th century.e district of Paris. “It can go between 800 and 2000 euros per night during the Games. There is money to be made,” she notes honestly.
The period from July 26 to August 11, 2024 promises to be lucrative for owners and for the company which is an official partner of the Olympics, Airbnb. Just take a look on the platform to see that the prices for the summer of 2023 are much lower. A Deloitte study commissioned by Airbnb estimates that owners should earn an average of nearly 2,000 euros gross during the Olympic period.
However, like so many other Parisians, Nathalie Lesage would have liked to attend Olympic events, but the tickets have become a Holy Grail that few lucky people have managed to obtain. The only ones she could have gotten her hands on were either too expensive for her budget or “for uninteresting competitions.”
Stéphanie Girerd is in the same boat. “I would have loved to have tickets, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime to attend Olympic events, she regrets. When we learned that Paris would have the Games; it was a big party! We calculated that my daughter would be 20 years old in 2024. For us, it was obvious that we would go see an event. »
She too will therefore desert the city by exchanging apartments with acquaintances who live in London. “They bought tickets, so they’re sure to see four disciplines,” she says, a little envious.
The Olympic lotteries for obtaining tickets have been a The Hunger Games : there were two, in the winter and in the spring. Two other phases of ticket sales are planned: one at the end of the year, then the official resale at the beginning of 2024. It therefore takes perseverance, but also money to attend these Games. For the main event of the event, the men’s 100 meter final, the cheapest tickets are 125 euros ($183) and go up to 980 euros ($1,440).
The most affordable tickets are sold at 24 euros and concern the worst places in qualifying events in several disciplines. Despite this, dissatisfaction remains: 82% of French people find ticket prices too high and 79% believe that the process for obtaining them is too complicated, according to an RTL survey released last March.
Controversies and Pride
Any edition of the Olympic Games is now entitled to its controversies, and that of Paris is no exception: last June, searches took place at the headquarters of the organizing committee due to suspicions of fraud and corruption in the awarding of public contracts.
Other controversies have tarnished the image of the organization in recent months: in May, the announcement of a plan to move homeless people from Paris to the region. A few days earlier, the announcement of a possible requisition of 3,000 student rooms during the Olympic period.
“I have the impression that we are almost privatizing a city for an event”, plagues Martin, 24, who does not wish to give his full name for professional reasons. The student at Sciences Po Paris, raised in the region of the capital, dreads these two summer weeks when the city will be populated by “ultra-frique tourists from abroad”.
The sale of tickets for the opening ceremony, which will take place on the Seine, particularly frustrates him: to attend, on July 27, 2024, you have to pay a minimum of 90 euros ($132), while access to the platforms is normally free. “Pecuniary event”, “shocking thing”; Martin does not mince his words. In these Games which will take place at his home, he does not find himself.
Olympic fever, with all the ills that a fever can of course cause, therefore takes hold of Paris. Nevertheless, the event promises to be grandiose. “It’s still exceptional to live in a city that will host the Olympics, recalls Nathalie Lesage. There is a pride. »