Paris 2024 bid moves a step closer as City Hall gives backing to Olympic bid

Paris looks set to submit a bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games ©Getty Images

Paris looks set to submit a bid for 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games after receiving backing from its City Hall today.

The bid is now supported by French President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was initially sceptical about the costs of staging the multi-sport event.

A formal declaration from the French National Olympic and Sport Federation (CNOSF) is expected by the end of June as it forms an association with the State and the Paris region to finalise the bid.

The group, which has a budget of €2 million (£1.5 million/$2 million), is due to meet for the first time on Wednesday (April 15).

“This is an historic vote which marks an important moment of our collective life,” said Hidalgo, who believes hosting the Games would benefit the country's economy and help make the northern suburbs of the Seine Saint-Denis region more accessible.

“We are now committed to the Olympic adventure.”

In February, Hidalgo received a key feasibility study from political leaders including Bernard Lapasset, President of the French International Sport Committee (CFSI), Denis Masseglia, President of the CNOSF, and Tony Estanguet, a three-time Olympic canoe champion who is now an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.

The Mayor said at the time she would "submit the candidature decision to the councils of Paris's 20 arrondissements at the end of March and to the Council of Paris in April".

Lapasset told the AssociatedPress that Hollande will meet with IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday (April 16) during his state visit to Switzerland, accompanied by Estanguet and another French IOC member Guy Drut.

''This is another good signal after the decision of the Paris council, which was actually more a massive approval than a vote,'' said Lapasset, who is also President of World Rugby.

''But we need to keep a cool head and keep working hard.''

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says Paris is "now committed to the Olympic adventure" ©Getty Images

Estanguet would lead the bid, alongside Lapasset.

The infrastructure budget has been estimated at €3 billion (£2 billion/$3.5 billion), with operational costs of €3.2 billion (£2.3 billion/$3.4 billion).

Existing infrastructure, such as the Stade de France and the clay tennis courts of Roland Garros, is likely to be used, according to Estanguet, with the main construction requirements including an aquatics centre, Olympic Village and media centre.

Jean-Francois Martins, assistant to the Mayor of Paris for sport, claimed the bid would be partly crowd-funded and cost around €60 million (£43 million/$63 million).

“Sport has given Paris its shape, and it should keep doing so,” he said.

Paris, which last hosted the Olympics in 1924, has seen its three most-recent bids in 1992, 2008 and 2012 come to nothing.

Boston, Hamburg and Rome are the other cities to have announced their 2024 candidacy thus far, while bids from Budapest, Istanbul, Doha and the Azerbaijani capital Baku also appear likely.

Cities who wish to enter the race must do so by September 15, with the IOC set to announce the winner at its 130th Session in the Peruvian capital Lima in 2017.