Right from the entrance gate, between the future city building and the one allocated to the associations, visitors are immediately struck by the intensity of the turquoise Mediterranean. The Roucas Blanc marina inaugurated in April by the Minister for Sport, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, and the Mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, is “the city’s new jewel and now the largest stadium in terms of surface area, ahead of the Vélodrome”, says Hervé Menchon, deputy mayor with responsibility for coastal and water sports.
It is also the main investment made in the city of Marseille as part of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. A total of 7,000 m2 of buildings have been erected for the event, and 17,000 m2 of outdoor spaces have been redeveloped, including dredging and a complete clean-up of the dock.
The cost of this major project has risen considerably over the years, not least because of inflation. Initially estimated at €39 million, the bill is now close to €50 million. “Before 2020, we were asking the city for €20 million. When we were elected, we renegotiated to be closer to 10 million, but in the end we’ll be looking at around 15 million euros,” explains Hervé Menchon. The rest of the bill will be paid by the département (6 million), the region (5 million), Europe (2.8 million) and the French government, which has also had to increase its initial budget of 16 million euros.
+ 10 to 15% budget increase
for the French team
French athletes have been benefiting from this massive investment for over a year now, including the 14 selected for Paris 2024, who were able to take possession of the centre of excellence in March 2023. “That’s obviously the great feature of these home Olympics: we’re touching on the legacy before the event” sums up Guillaume Chiellino, National Technical Director of the French Sailing Federation. “Yesterday, we were in in prefabricated buildings. Today, we have the most beautiful building in the world dedicated to sailing performance!”
With this new infrastructure at its disposal, the FFV has also increased the operating budget for the French team from 2021. Usually between 2 and 2.5 million euros per year, it has “increased by 10 to 15%,” according to Guillaume Chiellino, “in line with the scale of the event and our desire to make French sport shine”.
This increase, which in particular has enabled to mobilise more staff and improve the technical preparation of the boats, has been made possible by an increase in funding from the State, in particular through the National Sports Agency. In 2023, public funding and subsidies from the Ministry to the FFV reached €4.329 million, an increase of 6% on the previous year. “The Federation has also mobilised more of its support services to help with logistics and organisation, and has stepped up its communications, since we are benefiting from unprecedented media coverage for Olympic sailing”, says Guillaume Chiellino.
Unprecedented support
from Banque Populaire
To cover these additional costs, the FFV has also been able to benefit from increased support from its main partner for the past 24 years, Banque Populaire. “Sailing is our favourite sport, so it was obvious to support it for an event as popular and emotionally charged as the Paris Olympics, of which we are also premium partners”, explains Thierry Bouvard, head of sponsorship and patronage at Groupe BPCE.
Although the amount of the partnership is subject to a confidentiality clause, the manager is particularly pleased with the increased support given by the regional Banques Populaires. As part of the French Sport Foundation, they have provided more than 100 athletes, including 21 sailors preparing for the Olympics, with individual grants of “up to €20,000”, says Thierry Bouvard.
Banque Populaire’s support has also taken an unprecedented form, with the Olympic teams joining forces with the Team Banque Populaire based in Lorient, “a team with exceptional know-how and strike force, particularly when it comes to foil technology”, points out Thierry Bouvard. “Since the summer of 2023, several technicians and two people from the design office have been made available to the French team and have worked on the iQFoil and especially the Nacra 17,” confirms Ronan Lucas, the director of the ocean racing team. In the latter category, “we developed a simulator with the architects VPLP, just like in Ultim or the America’s Cup, which enabled the sailors to perfect their skills”.
The boat of the duo selected in Nacra 17, Tim Mourniac and Lou Berthomieu, also “spent ten days in Lorient being looked after by our teams, including a full 3D scan to ensure that everything was aligned, symmetrical and with a perfect hull”. This rapprochement could be the “foundation stone of a future collaboration”, continues Ronan Lucas, who sensed “great enthusiasm from the teams to work to bring medals back to France”.
“Increase the number of
of members by 5 to 10%”
Because behind all this investment, the results – and the spin-offs that will ensue – are inevitably at stake. “We’re expecting a lot from this sport, which is performing extremely well at the Olympics,” confirms Thierry Bouvard of BPCE, who has also “increased the budget for partner activations, with the Maxi Banque Populaire XI coming to Marseille for a great moment of communion around sailing and its values”.
For the French team, no sporting objectives have been set, “although we still hope to do better than at the previous Games [3 medals in Tokyo, editor’s note]“, confirms the DTN. The FFV is counting on good performances from French sailors to create “an Olympic effect for sailing in France“, with the aim of “increasing the number of members by 5 to 10%”, confides Guillaume Chellino, who sees the Marseilles venue as “an idyllic setting to make the general public dream. We can make sailing the very good surprise of the Games“.
The organisers of the Paris 2024 Games are delighted with the speed with which the sailing events have been sold out for over a year now. Some 12,000 tickets a day have been sold, meaning that 140,000 people are expected to attend the events, 35% of whom will be foreigners, according to Cédric Dufoix, COO for the 2024 Games sites in Marseille. The direct economic spin-offs expected for Marseille, which is also hosting some football matches, are estimated at nearly €200 million.
What will become of the Roucas Blanc marina after the Games remains to be seen. “It’s obviously crucial to ensure that the people of Marseilles take ownership of this legacy,” confirms deputy mayor Hervé Menchon. In addition to the French team’s HQ, the site is set to become a water sports stadium capable of hosting around 11,000 school children a year, compared with the current 4,000. “It’s a real strategy on the part of the city council to bet on sailing as a way of uniting the people of Marseilles and getting away from the image of football and drugs,” explains Hervé Menchon. “The objective, which has been included in the budget, is for all children to be able to take up sailing before Middle school. There’s a real need to open them up to the world and to nature, bearing in mind that half the pupils here at this age don’t know how to swim.”
Guillaume Chiellino is delighted that this training for young people could also create “a fantastic pool of talent for the French national team and, who knows, athletes for the next Olympic Games”.
