The press conference of the Vendée Globe 2024 took place on Thursday at the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt. It was an opportunity to present the 40 skippers who will be setting off from Les Sables d’Olonne on 10 November and for Tip & Shaft to glean some information.
After a 2020 edition marked by Covid, and therefore by the absence of spectators in Les Sables d’Olonne, the Vendée Globe will be making its return this year in its usual configuration, with a village which will open its doors on 19 October and will cover 30,000 square metres. The tenth edition promises to be a record-breaking one, already in terms of the number of participants, as there will be 40 (compared to 33 in 2020) setting off on 10 November.
Alain Leboeuf, president of the Vendée département and as such of SAEM Vendée, which organises the race, estimates that “over a million” people will visit the village. Although they will still be able to enter free of charge, they will now have to register online. This figure does not take into account those who will only arrive on the day of the start, and then the finish, to crowd along the famous Les Sables channel.
The inflation also concerns the budget which, over four years, amounts to 21 million euros (excluding VAT), compared to 16 in 2020 and 12.3 in 2016. This figure rises to 25 million euros if the Vendée Arctique 2022 and the New York Vendée 2024, also organised by SAEM Vendée during this four-year cycle, are added. This budget is provided by private partners (35%), public authorities (32%), income from the village and hospitality (25%), merchandising and miscellaneous income (4%) and entry fees (4%), the latter amounting to 20,000 euros (excl. VAT) per competitor. A sum which, as the president of the of the Vendée département points out, “is fully dedicated to reward the skippers”.
The prize money is unchanged – 800,000 euros – from the previous edition, with the winner receiving 200,000 euros (incl. VAT), the second 140,000, the third 100,000, the fourth 80,000, the fifth 50,000, the sixth 40,000, the seventh 30,000, the eighth 25,000, the ninth 20,000, the tenth 15,000, with the remaining 100,000 divided between the other ranked sailors. On the expenditure side, this budget is devoted to the development and management of the village (35%), communications (32%), operating costs over four years (18%) and everything to do with race management (15%).
Travel accounts for
63% of our carbon footprint
If we go into the details of the revenue, among the local authorities contributing to the budget for this Vendée Globe 2024, the Vendée department is the biggest contributor, with 4.7 million euros, followed by the town of Les Sables d’Olonne with 1.5 million euros and the Pays de la Loire region with 660,000 euros. According to the town’s mayor, Yannick Moreau, interviewed by Tip & Shaft, the town spends a further €1 million, mainly on providing resources, managing public transport (free shuttles, reduced-rate season tickets, etc.) and organising its own events outside the village, the aim of which is to “attract families to the town centre”.
The town mayor mentions the visit to the seafront of a former Imoca and an exhibition specially commissioned from the first winner of the Vendée Globe, Titouan Lamazou – whose refurbished former Ecureuil d’Aquitaine will be moored to the Vendée Globe pontoon for the duration of the race.
The region is also putting its hand in the wallet, in addition to its subsidy, by financing the “live tickets” operation which, according to its vice-president Isabelle Leroy, “from 8 to 11 November, people will be able to travel by TER to Les Sables d’Olonne for €5 from any station in the Pays de la Loire region and even further afield, including La Rochelle and stations in Brittany”. This is just one of a number of initiatives (waste and water management and recycling, constraints imposed on exhibitors, particularly on goodies, etc.) designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the Vendée Globe, 63% of which is accounted for by travel.
High expectations
for the local ecosystem
While this influx of visitors has an environmental cost, as with any mass event, it also generates significant spin-offs for the local economy. This year’s expectations are particularly high, firstly because the 2020 event was held without any visitors, and secondly because, as Yannick Moreau explains, “we had an average tourist season with a very disappointing month of July, so we’re hoping that the influx of visitors in October and November will compensate in part for this shortfall“.
Although the town has never before commissioned any specific studies into the economic and media impact of the Vendée Globe, according to its mayor, it is planning to do so this year, but on a one-year scale, from 1 October 2024 to the end of autumn 2025, as he points out “that the Vendée Globe is a driving force behind the dynamism and appeal of the Vendée and Les Sables regions“.
Alain Leboeuf confirms this with figures, as the department carries out these studies for each edition of the race: “In 2016, the direct economic spin-offs for the Vendée, mainly for the hotel and restaurant trade, were estimated at 35 million euros, to which must be added 15 million in media spin-offs in advertising equivalent [373 million for the race, 105 of which went abroad, editor’s note]. We also see a lot of tourists, increasingly from abroad, arriving in Vendée one or two years later, because they’ve seen the Vendée Globe on TV. We’ll be doing this study again after the 2024 Vendée Globe, but these figures should increase significantly.”
120 million in spin-offs
for Sodebo since 2004
As far as private partners are concerned, Sodebo will be a major partner in the Vendée Globe for the sixth time running, with a total budget over four years that Patricia Brochard, its co-president, revealed at the event. Tip & Shaft/Connect event in March: €4.3 million, with the Vendée-based company spending an additional €1.2 million on activations over the period. “The amount allocated to the Vendée Globe has increased by 300,000 euros compared to the previous edition, because we have also become partners of the Vendée Arctique and the New York Vendée,” explains Adrien Cervetto, head of sports and events marketing at Sodebo.
Once again, the spin-offs have been positive, according to Cervetto: “In all, over the last 25 years, sailing has generated just over €200 million in terms of space purchases, and if we look at the Vendée Globe alone, we’re talking about €120 million since 2004, including €33 million for the last edition. The race has clearly helped to develop brand awareness, which has risen from 8% to 96% in 25 years.”
Alongside Sodebo, the other official private partners are Banque Populaire Grand Ouest, a newcomer to this tenth edition, the company Eoliennes en mer-Iles d’Yeu et de Noirmoutier, Ulysse Nardin and Zodiac. The other partnership levels are split between official suppliers, ocean partners and technical suppliers. All in all, according to Alain Leboeuf, “the budget is balanced, we don’t aim to make a profit, and when we find new revenue, we can afford to spend extra”.
A younger audience in target
The additional expenditure relates in particular to communications, with some new features in 2024 designed to appeal in particular to a younger audience: the arrival of the Vendée Globe on the Tik Tok network, the mascot Adélie the penguin, a first for the race, and a Panini album, which will include 175 stickers, the first time in sailing for the famous Italian brand.
“We had an initial contact ten years ago with the Vendée Globe, but we didn’t follow it up, because at the time we were still very focused on our main themes, football in particular,” explains Isabelle Fillon, Marketing Director of Panini France. “Since then, we’ve diversified to a certain extent, and during the last edition, we had the feeling that a lot of families and children had followed this adventure, so we thought it was the right time to finally take on the theme of sailing and the Vendée Globe.”
How many albums and stickers will be printed, and how much is the licensing contract between Panini and SAEM Vendée worth? “We‘re not releasing these figures,” replies Isabelle Fillon. “I can only tell you that we have initially calibrated this collection like the Tour de France cycling collection, with national referencing, even if it is of course in the Grand Ouest that we will find the most albums”.
Finally, a series devoted to the Vendée Globe, “of four to six episodes”, currently being filmed along the lines of the successful Netflix series Drive To Survive and Au Coeur du Peloton, will be launched in 2026, produced by Federation Studios, with Bonne Pioche and Box Fish Productions, and broadcast on France Télévisions. With five or six main characters, including, according to our information, Violette Dorange, Clarisse Crémer, Conrad Colman, Jérémie Beyou and Thomas Ruyant.
Photo: Olivier Blanchet / Alea
