Will Seine-Saint-Denis, which is to host a large part of the 2024 Olympic Games, still lose competition venues? Officially nothing is played. "The discussions are not even started," we breathe within the Paris 2024 organizing committee (Cojo).
He plans to make serious savings, "to give himself some leeway in case of problems". In particular in the event of difficulties in completing a marketing program evaluated in the organization budget (which reaches 3.8 billion euros, in addition to the 3.2 billion euros reserved for Olympic works). What worry the elected.
"We cannot pretend that there is no crisis"
"We cannot pretend that there is no crisis," insists on Paris 2024. In recent weeks, the organizers have therefore started a new project review, with the idea of saving several hundred million euros. The Cojo denies working "alone in its corner". "The room for maneuver, we will find them all together," he repeats. Options are however already on the table and the sites of the 93, in particular the shooting, with the ground of essences of La Courneuve, and the volleyball, in Le Bourget, are in the viewfinder.
Other stakeholders point to the Concorde site in Paris, dedicated to urban sports (climbing, 3x3 basketball, breaking, skateboarding) and imagine dismantling it. Unacceptable for the Cojo. “It is an emblematic site (Editor's note: Paris 2024 tables on iconic places like the Concorde, the Eiffel Tower or the Palace of Versailles to boost audiences and attract sponsors) . Our challenge is to find room for maneuver while creating value. "
In other words, an Olympic event at the foot of the Champs-Elysées would be more “salable” than at Le Bourget or La Courneuve… Le Cojo insists: “The future project will not betray our commitments, we need Seine-Saint-Denis. In his eyes, the notions of heritage and environment are important.
The delay on lines 16 and 17, an ideal pretext?
Yet, precisely, another problem arises at the exit from containment, since lines 16 and 17 will not, a priori, be completed in 2024. Unluck (or windfall?), These are the ones that were to serve the Bourget sites ! We will therefore have to find another means of transport (paying attention to the carbon tax, dear to the organizers) ... or go elsewhere.
"It's the ball of false asses!" wins the senator (UDI) of 93 Vincent Capo-Canellas. The SGP tries to make us admit that a month and a half of suspension of work during confinement equals five months of delay. And the Cojo takes the opportunity to say that this is an opportunity to get back to the sites in Seine-Saint-Denis! "
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No question that the non-delivery of metro lines serve as a "pretext" for moving competition sites. "From the start, a plan B with buses has been devised (Editor's note: what Paris 2024 denies, although the potential delays were known to all), " continues the senator, who recalls that Seine-Saint-Denis had already "paid the price" for a previous project review in 2018.
It had then lost two competition sites (water polo at Marville and volleyball at Le Bourget) and had to fight to keep the media village of Le Bourget in good condition. “My red line is the tangible and intangible heritage! "Explains the PS president of the department, Stéphane Troussel. Who specifies: there is "obviously no question of withdrawing a new site".
"We must stop playing with the territory and its inhabitants"
Certainly, the 93 will keep whatever happens the Olympic village and the aquatic center of Saint-Denis. However, from the bid phase, Stéphane Troussel fought so that the south of the department would not be the only one served by the Olympic Games. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, had insisted on the fact that the Games should make it possible “to break down the border between Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis”.
"We must stop playing with the territory and its inhabitants, at one point it is not serious," said Vincent Capo-Canellas. We would like to hate the Games, we would not do it otherwise. "The senator" appealed to the State and to the interministerial delegate to the Olympic Games to put an end to this game of ping-pong between the Cojo, the Solideo and the elected officials. "
“During the confinement, we shed tears over the inequalities in Seine-Saint-Denis, about the excess mortality, about the people who continued to work, continues Stéphane Troussel. We can not have less inheritance than what was promised, on the contrary! I ask the state to be the guarantor of the inheritance. "
The organizing committee plays the appeasement. “We are studying several avenues, firstly on the side of the IOC (the International Olympic Committee which is already paying 1 billion euros). It is normal for a project review to cause concern. The first time we had re-examined the project (in 2018), it was already the case and we had come up with something better that had satisfied everyone. In the bid phase, Seine-Saint-Denis was a collective choice, the heritage will not be degraded. "
