2023 and 2024 will be very sporty in Nice.
In a few months, the Riviera city has just announced the hosting of an imposing series of internationally renowned events.
There will be, in particular, on September 10, 2023, the final of the Ironman World Championship, the most difficult of triathlons, organized until then in Hawaii.
But also, in July, the Hopman Cup, a mixed tennis competition which will arrive from Australia, four matches of the Rugby World Cup in September or the second edition of the renowned ultra-trail "Nice Côte d'Azur by UTMB".
In 2024, again with six football matches of the 2024 Olympics and, above all, the historic coming of the Tour de France which will make Nice "the first city in France to welcome its arrival, outside Paris, since 1904", according to Christian Prudhomme, race director.
The rumor of an F1 Grand Prix in the years to come also comes up regularly despite denials.
Compensate for a drop in business tourism
This frenzy of events, unprecedented in the region, is obviously not disinterested, justifies the mayor Christian Estrosi (Horizons): "Our strategy of hosting sporting and/or international events will ensure us particularly significant economic and media benefits" , he said.
The Ironman or the Rugby World Cup alone should attract, between them, 160,000 people for 210,000 nights in hotels and more than 100 million euros spent at the town hall.
This desire to favor all-out events is also a way of compensating for a drop, dreaded by professionals, in business tourism.
The scheduled (and contested) demolition of the Acropolis Convention Center in the coming months will not be compensated immediately by the construction of its replacement to the west of the town.
Opponents of the project believe that this will not be without consequence and dispute the figures of the town hall.
The latter nevertheless provides for other sporting “surprises” on the 2025 calendar.
