For the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the French capital was transformed into a magnificent sports festival and some events took place in exceptional locations, around the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, in the Grand Palais, under the Alexandre III bridge or even at the Château de Versailles. On the other hand, the choice of stadiums for the two football tournaments is questionable. The organizing committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games chose seven major stadiums in France in order to sell as many tickets as possible. There was no popular fervor.
The fiasco is all the more terrible because, while Thierry Henry’s Les Bleus and Hervé Renard’s Les Bleues were well supported, the women’s tournament attracted very few people. With 12,212 people at the women’s matches in the first round (which ends this Saturday), we have the lowest attendance in the history of the Olympic Games for this discipline (apart from the Tokyo Games behind closed doors). Even in Greece, in 2004, the women’s tournament had a better average, with 14,113 spectators. And 12,000 people on average is 10,000 fewer than in London in 2012 and Sydney in 2000.
Women’s football weighed down by COJOP
The Cojop chaired by Tony Estanguet has gone too far. While the only match at the Parc des Princes, a Japan-Brazil match, was a hit (40,918 spectators), women’s football has been neglected in the region. The immense Groupama Stadium and the Orange Vélodrome have rung empty (18,789 spectators on average in Lyon, only 11,871 in Marseille). We are down below the 10,000 person mark on average in Nantes (9,312), Saint-Etienne (7,622) and Nice (5,126). The Allianz Riviera is plunged into the hell of the Côte d’Azur, the most visited region in summer and which does not need the Olympic Games.
Especially since the two football tournaments could very well have been held near Paris, in cities two hours away by car, before concluding at the Parc. In the regions bordering Île-de-France in Normandy, Hauts-de-France, Grand Est and Bourgogne-France-Comté alone, Lens, Le Havre, Valenciennes, Sedan, Reims, Troyes and Caen all have a stadium with at least 20,000 seats…
