After three failed Olympic bids in two and a half decades, Paris's luck finally changed. It is slated to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. What did Paris do to change its outcome this time around? Rather than focusing on politics and the prospective roles of its public officials, France focused more on its athletes and sports leadership. On the campaign side, former President Francois Hollande and Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo increased their diplomatic lobbying efforts, by "meeting everyone that would have a role in the final decision" and maneuvering their connections to "push for the Games to come to Paris."
According to an Economic Impact Study done by the Centre for Law and Economics of Sport at the University of Limoges, the 2024 Games could generate a potential 10.7 billion Euros worth of benefits and "create more than 250,00 jobs in the Ile-de-France region." These figures represent the "best case scenario" which range from the worst case scenario of 5.4 million Euros, with 119,000 jobs. In the middle is 8.1 million Euros, with 189,000 new jobs created.
Given the terror attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis and the global scope of the Games and the security measures entailed, there were many doubts that the nation's conditions would permit them to host. But Francois Hollande believed that "organizing the Games was the most beautiful answer we could give to fundamentalism," when interviewed by The New York Times. Upon the end of Hollande's tenure, Emmanuel Macron continued the campaign for hosting the games, and his presence resonated well with the parties involved in the decision-making, given his reputation for being "open, inclusive, and... popular" at the time.
The most recent lost bid for the 2012 Games caused France to reflect upon the flaws in their strategy. They came to realize that political differences between national and local leadership would not be well received by the judges for such competitions. A perceived unity across political leadership is crucial, given the sheer size and costliness of the responsibilities that would be assumed by the host country.
Paris's Mayor Anne Hidalgo has plans for the Parisian Olympics to be "greener and cheaper than previous Olympic Games." After all, the host city of any Olympics typically involves assuming a financial burden, "synonymous with cost overruns." As of June 2017, Paris has publicized a budget of 60 million Euros. Ecological friendliness has been high up on Hidalgo's personal agenda for Paris so far, as she has successfully reduced car traffic, encouraged bike usage, and started on a plan to cut greenhouse emissions by 25% by the year 2020. There are also plans underway to either re-use existing sports venues, or create temporary structures. Currently, Paris's budget for the Olympics is 6.8 billion euros, or $8.1 billion. From this, 3.8 billion euros is dedicated to "the organization of the sporting competitions" and an additional 3 billion is dedicated to "development and infrastructure projects."
Paris also has to take its troubled suburbs into consideration, in planning for the Games. It claims that the Olympics will help improve the development of certain neighborhoods, as key new structures are slated to be constructed there. For instance, Seine-Saint-Denis is one of the less affluent neighborhoods, with poor housing options and a few gentrified areas. It is the destination for the Olympic Village, an aquatics center, and a media center. Each of these structures are destined to be repurposed for public and local usage after the Olympics are over. This was another winning element of Paris's most recent bid, which took a cue from London's winning bid in 2012. With the city's inclusion of Stratford, a poor region of London, the Olympics helped transform such areas into examples of "urban regeneration and housing gentrification."