Details of a new venue masterplan for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been confirmed amid a continued cost-cutting drive by the organising committee.
In September, Paris 2024 proposed a number of changes to its plan, with two temporary venues being dropped in the shape of the Aquatics Stadium and Le Bourget Arena.
The new plan was presented yesterday (Wednesday) during an Executive Board meeting, with organisers claiming the new vision enables certain venues to be shared to allow for budget savings and tighter control of funds. The plans were presented following a six-month engagement with stakeholders.
Following continued discussions with the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee and other international federations, the plans will be submitted to the Paris 2024 board of directors on December 17.
The key change outlined under the new masterplan is the distribution of sports across venues. Certain venues will host more than one sport, with new venues to host the same sports for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Paris 2024 confirmed that this “better use of resources” will eliminate the need for Le Bourget Arena and the Aquatics Stadium and will also remove the Stade Jean-Bouin from the stable of football venues. La Défense Arena has also been pencilled in for swimming events, with volleyball competitions to be staged at Arena Paris Sud 1.
Paris 2024 said the revised concept will retain its “spectacular dimension”, with the Stade de France, Roland Garros, La Défense Arena, Bercy Arena, National Velodrome and Golf National among the major venues that will be used.
Stade Pierre-Mauroy (pictured), home of Ligue 1 football club LOSC Lille, had previously been pencilled in as a new venue and the plans outlined yesterday propose that the stadium will stage handball events during the Olympics. Handball competitions had previously been planned for Port de Versailles.
Eighty per cent of the venues will be located less than 30 minutes from the Olympic and Paralympic village, with 24 sports within 10km of the village and 29 within 30km. Each venue will have public transport links and disability access.
The new plan also reaffirms the Seine-Saint Denis region as the heart of the Games. The region will host five Olympic sports: athletics, aquatic events, climbing, rugby sevens and shooting, as well as the Paralympic marathon and road cycling race.
The meeting of the Paris 2024 board of directors on December 17 will take place after the IOC has released the sports programme for the Olympics. The IOC Executive Board is set to meet from December 7-11 to approve four new sports.
After the Paris 2024 venue changes were proposed in September, it was reported by the AFP news agency that the reworked plan would reduce the Games budget by as much as €150m (£134m/$178m), with other savings in areas such as transport set to save the organising committee as much as €400m. The initial budget for the Games was set at €3.8bn.
Image: Dronepicr/CC BY 3.0/Edited for size
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