The actor remains little known, but he is not an obscure supporting role. Less than a year before the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France (September 8 to October 28), and 663 days before the opening of the Paris 2024 Games, the coming months promise to be intense for the host cities. But they can rely on an association, created on the model of the “Club des sites” of Euro football 2016 in France.
Its name: Sports Event Territories (TES). Chaired by Mathieu Hanotin, the mayor of Saint-Denis, it brings together elected officials and technical directors from the cities in charge of the next major international sporting events (GESI) organized in France.
Originally, it was created for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with the same cities as for the 2016 Euro Football Championship, minus Lens, plus Nantes. Then its scope was expanded for the Paris 2024 Games. It now has two colleges, each dedicated to one of the two major events to come.
His role ? It is threefold. Antoine Chinès, national coordinator of the association, explains: “ We bring together cities and metropolises for negotiations with the organizing committees, based on the principle that we are stronger together. We also pool work and data relating to the delivery of the event, in particular through the production of content. Finally, we carry out strategic monitoring of future applications for our member cities. »
In addition to coordination work throughout the year, Territories of sporting events brings together its members three times a year for two-day meetings. The next one takes place this Friday November 4 and Saturday November 5, at the Vélodrome national in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, then in Saint-Denis. On the program, discussions with the prefect Ziad Khoury, national coordinator for the security of the Paris 2024 Games, with the head of the Olympic Intelligence Center, but also with Etienne Thobois, the general director of the COJO Paris 2024, and Julien Collette, his counterpart of France 2023.
The list of host cities displays a strong contrast between the largest – Paris, Lyon, Marseille, etc. –, which have long been accustomed to GESI rules, and municipalities with more modest dimensions and experience, such as La Courneuve, Colombes or Paris Marne Valley around Vaires sur Marne.
« This is the whole point of the association, suggests Antoine Chinès. The bigger ones can help the smaller ones with their experience. But we distinguish three categories of cities: the founding members, namely the 10 cities of the 2023 Rugby World Cup; active members, who own at least one major sports facility capable of hosting an international event; and finally the temporary members, from smaller towns less accustomed to sporting events who join to prepare a single specific event. »
Despite the recent turmoil in the organizing committee, where the general director, Claude Atcher, was pushed out, the 2023 Rugby World Cup presents itself as a classic event for the host cities. One stadium, two teams per match, celebration areas. The Paris 2024 Games, on the other hand, promise to be more complex.
« We try to serve as a transmission belt between the organizers and the cities, continues Antoine Chinès. Our relationship with the OCOG works both ways. By speaking with us, he can convey messages. For our part, we can alert them to potential problems relating to all subjects that impact the host cities and their responsibilities.."
The host cities can attest to this: the first years of preparation for the Paris 2024 Games have long followed the course of a calm river without any unpleasant surprises. “ Relations with the COJO were mainly centered on Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis“, recognizes Antoine Chinès.
But the new budgetary situation, imposed by a very tense economic context, heralds more turbulent times ahead. The national coordinator of TES makes no secret of this: “ The tightening of bolts undertaken by the COJO will not be without effect on cities. With less to grind, discussions and negotiations will be more difficult. All the gray areas concerning each other's responsibilities will be the subject of more complicated discussions. Cities are becoming aware of the reality of future costs. »
Who will pay what? Less than two years from the event, not all the gray areas have been erased. Cities are aware of this. But they move forward together.
