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The Paralympic Games can be a financially rewarding experience for host cities and leave a unique legacy
Aug
The mega-event continues to shine in Paris, where the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games are already underway. Some 4,400 athletes will take to the world stage to compete in 22 different sports.
The Paralympic Games in Paris attracted a phenomenal level of interest – more than two million tickets have already been sold. Some are now Speculating This event has the potential to make Paralympic history and become the first ever sold-out event.
This raises some significant questions for host cities. How do the economics of the Paralympics compare to the Olympics? Who gets the broadcast rights?
Above all, what legacy will it leave for Paris, apart from the Olympics? The Games will provide the expected economic prosperity, but their real value lies in the increasingly dazzling spotlight they cast on elite para sports.
Read more: Brand Olympics: Do the renowned rings benefit host countries?
Games are deeply interconnected
The cost of hosting the Olympics could far exceed initial estimates. Since the early 21st century, host cities have also been given the rights to host the Paralympics, meaning the economics of both — and the risk of cost overruns — are closely linked.
The recent University of Oxford report suggested that the total cost of the Paris 2024 Games – A$12.8 billion – was an over-budget of around 115%.
Long-standing concerns about cost overruns prompted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to create the “The new normThe “model”, approved in 2018, included 118 reforms aimed at reducing the financial burden of hosting the Games.
The Paris Games actively adopted several elements of this model. Some of these initiatives – which remain in place for the Paralympics – include the operate of existing infrastructure and attractions where possible, and the extensive operate of short-lived facilities.
Christophe Ena/AP
The Paralympic Village in Paris has been designed be a 100% accessible venue, using largely the infrastructure from the Olympic Games.
Because the Paralympic Games feature different disciplines than the Olympic Games, a number of facilities have been adapted; for example, the volleyball court under the Eiffel Tower will be used to host blind football matches.
Read more: Why the Olympics and Paralympics aren’t combined into one Games? The reason goes beyond logistics
Making Paris more accessible to everyone
Paris has taken a number of steps to make the city more accessible and expects some 350,000 disabled people to attend the Games.
This included repairing damaged roads, improving pedestrian crossings by lowering pavements and installing fresh warning stripes and traffic featherlight sounds.
The city also issued 22 million euros (AUD$35.8 million) to ensure full accessibility of 59 of 61 bus routes.
Roman Zaiets/Shutterstock
The costs of making infrastructure improvements may escalate due to the need to implement them quickly.
However, for Paris, they will undoubtedly bring long-term benefits to the city’s users and future visitors, constituting a structural legacy of the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Reviving tourism?
Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games can quickly put a city in the international spotlight. The resulting tourism boom is sold as one of the biggest benefits of hosting the games.
How much Paris will benefit from this exposure is an obvious point of debate, given that France is already a world leader most visited country by foreign tourists.
It’s demanding to know how the Paralympics’ specific impact on tourism might compare to the Olympics. But we can look at previous games.
AND questionnaire groups visiting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi showed a significant difference in average daily tourist expenditure between Olympic visitors (A$381) and Paralympic visitors (A$281). This was due to higher ticket and transportation costs for Olympic visitors.
In contrast, tourists visiting the Paralympic Games stayed in a given location for longer, which meant that total expenditure was similar for both groups.
The two groups were also somewhat differently motivated. Olympic tourists were more focused on competition, while Paralympic tourists were more likely to seek out the festival atmosphere that the Games brought to their destination.
Jeff Crowe/AAP
What about broadcasting rights?
For for the first time in historyThe Paris Games will feature live coverage of all 22 Paralympic sports from a record number of global media partners. However, they are not automatically included in the Olympic broadcasting rights.
In Australia, Channel Nine Paid Parking AUD$305 million from the IOC for exclusive broadcast rights to the 2024-2032 Olympic Games. In addition, negotiations were underway with Paralympics Australia to secure media rights to the 2024 Paralympic Games.
The exact amount of the second contract is not publicly available, but it is likely to be less than the cost of covering the Olympic Games, given the smaller number of Paralympic sports to be covered.
Both deals have already proven lucrative for the network. By early August, Nine had secured over 140 million Australian dollars advertising revenues associated with coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Where the real value lies
Beyond the economics, many argue that the real value of hosting the Paralympic Games is the opportunity to draw attention to elite Paralympic sports.
Historically, media coverage of the Paralympic Games has been problematic because the focus has been on the athletes’ disabilities rather than their performance.
Joel Marklund/EPA
Due to the record level of media interest in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the International Paralympic Committee has launched an significant campaign social media campaign to emphasize that Para athletes do not “participate” but “compete” in the Games.
The hope now is that cities like Brisbane – set to host the 2032 Games – can learn from Paris on how to improve accessibility across the city and avoid some of the historic cost overruns of previous Olympic and Paralympic Games.
