One major sporting event chases the other in France. After the 2023 Rugby World Cup (September 8 to October 28), the Paris 2024 Games. And, a more distant perspective, arrived almost by surprise, the Winter Games in 2030.
Common point, a planetary dimension, but not only that. Beyond the competition, the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic and Paralympic Games are also a moment of celebration. An opportunity for French cities, hosts of the event or not, to live to the rhythm of sport.
The celebration, then. The subject features prominently on the menu of the last meeting of the year of the Territoires d'Events Sportives (TES) association, this Tuesday, December 12. With a question for its member cities, hosts of the Rugby World Cup and/or the Olympic Games: how to learn from one event, France 2023, to be even more successful in the other, Paris 2024.
For rugby, the nature and culture of the world tournament had encouraged the ten host cities to choose an identical celebration space, the Rugby Villages. The concept was implemented locally according to the region's tourism, cultural, sporting and festive policy. Their results did not disappoint: a cumulative total attendance of 1.598 visitors, an increase of 203% compared to the previous edition, organized in Japan in 40,5. The result exceeded expectations.
Comment from Antoine Chinès, the general delegate of TES: “ With our assessment of the rugby villages, we were able to explore the motivations of visitors. Taking part in events was a reason to travel almost as important as watching matches. The lesson is to be learned for communities in 2024. The experience for children, young people and families through the discovery of the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines will have to be taken into account even more than the broadcasts of the competitions. »
The message is clear, and the lesson eloquent: installing a giant screen and offering to follow the action in groups will not be enough to satisfy the public. To reach their target, celebration spaces will have to play the sports entertainment card.
Less than 230 days before the Paris 2024 Games, the celebration file is already showing great depth. According to the COJO and TES accounts, no less than 186 communities in France have submitted a Club 2024 project, the generic name for celebration spaces during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. To this number, we must add three files submitted by non-territorial structures: the CROUS of Paris, the French Handball Federation and the CREPS of Pays de la Loire.
Another figure, revealing a desire to experience the Games on a grand scale almost everywhere in France: 22 projects concern the host cities of the Olympic and Paralympic event. All the rest, the vast majority, comes from municipalities or territories not directly concerned by the competitions.
Little expected, but welcome: not all French cities will put away their decor the day after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, Sunday August 11, 2024. Half of the projects submitted plan to extend the celebration with an activation also during the Paralympic Games.
Ambitious: no less than nine Club 2024 projects already registered by the COJO are intended to be itinerant. The Pays de la Loire region, the cities of Rennes, Sète and Valenton, in particular, are preparing to celebrate the Games without putting down roots, by going out to meet the populations.
Finally, the figures communicated by TES and the COJO reveal an assumed desire of French cities to see things big. No less than 77 projects submitted envisage a capacity greater than 1.500 people.
