host the Olympics is afinancially risky proposition , one that begins a decade before the event are actually hold . metropolis compete to convince – first their own countries , then the International Olympic Committee – that they are the right venue : Safe , with convenient transport , plus efficient and elaborate infrastructure . The operation is n’t cheap . Chicago , for example , expend an estimated $ 100 million in its dictation to host the 2016 summer games – and lose [ source : Zimbalist ] .
If a innkeeper metropolis is select , it partner with country and federal government – and private enterprise – to expand rail help , build massivehotelsand construct arenas in which to host the games . But even the good - laid plans seem to finish with skyrocketing cost . An Oxford University study examining the Olympic Games from 1962 to 2012 chance on innkeeper cities experience , on average , a 179 per centum cost overproduction during the preparation phase [ source : Black ] . Perhaps underestimating expenditures is an Olympic tradition , too . It for sure seems that way when you look at our chronological leaning of Olympics that broke the savings bank , starting with the very first one .
10: 1896 Athens Summer Olympics
In April 1896 , Athens , Greece , host thefirst Olympic Gamesof the mod earned run average . And near lost everything in the process . The body politic was already belly-up when it took on the competition , but the relatively new purple kinsperson believe the games would boost its popularity . ( The Greek majestic family unit was really from Denmark ) .
Kicking off an Olympian custom , organizers grossly lowball the cost of host the game . The perceived cost of 585,000 drachmas ( about $ 74,000 in 1896 ) to fix for the competition ballooned to 3,740,000 drachmas , the equivalent of $ 448,000 . Much of the overage was attributed to the expense of restoring Athens ' ancient stadium [ source : Jennings , Zarnowski ] .
Fortunately , a 1 million dram donation from a rich businessman helped insure the price . And as the games got afoot , bustle sale of token stamp and medals brought in extra revenue [ source : Jennings , Zarnowski ] . Crisis averted .
9: 1924 Paris Summer Olympics
After what could be deemed several 10 of false starts – fewparticipating country , slight crowds and nebulous method of accounting soma – the Olympics Games finally demonstrated a firm exhibit in 1924 . Host cityParis , France , welcomed 44 take part nations to the global competition and spectators flocked to the result , averaging about 60,000 each mean solar day [ source : Zarnowski ] .
Yet even as the response to the 1924 Olympic Games appear full of promise , there were financial warning sign . readying costs were so high that local insurance policy companies offered policies against the estimate full gross , of up to 10 million franc [ source : Zarnowski ] .
Despite several highlight ( Eric Liddell won the 400 metre race , after depicted in the film " Chariots of Fire " ) , the games were a fiscal flop . At the close , the 1924 Olympics garnered 5,496,610 francs – only about half the revenue that had been bear [ origin : Zarnowski ] .
8: 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics
" The Olympics can no more have a fiscal shortage than a man can have a baby , " declared the mayor of Montreal before opening of these biz in 1976 . Boy , was he awry . The Montreal Olympics function down in history as anotorious money - unsuccessful person , dash off many cities from bidding for the games in the futurity .
These Olympics were budget at a small CA$120 million ( U.S. $ 110 million ) , but structure overrun result in a CA$922 million deficit that overwhelmed the exceptional tobacco plant taxation expected to fund most of the debt . Building costs included a stadium , a full - fledged Olympic Village with flat buildings , out-of-door and indoor recreational facilities , and a monolithic velodrome .
No wonder that in 1977 , when the Olympic bowl begin its second life as home to the Montreal Expos Major League Baseball team – and was dubbed the Big O in homage to its storied beginning – Canadians opted to call it the Big Owe rather . billion more were spent upgrading the bowl and on a retractable roof that never crop . By the metre the debt was give off 30 years later on in 2006 , the combination of capital and interest had cost the city CA$3 billion [ sources : CBC News , CTV Montreal ] . To lend affront to injury , this is the only Olympics where the master of ceremonies country did not win any gold medals .
7: 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics
" Extreme wish lists . " " Everything they can get . " These were just two of the phrases the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee ’s financial control used to describe the organizers of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid , N.Y. An Associated Press clause from 1978 mention the Olympic budget had already escalate from $ 80 million to $ 150 million [ reference : Seymour ] .
By the time the Olympics were over , Lake Placid was $ 6 million in debt – an staggering amount for an incorporated village with a tax basis of about 3,000 residents . owe a reported 1,600 creditors , the city was unable to get further attention from the federal government , which had already spent approximately $ 90 million on the Olympics . That ’s when the State Department of New York step in . In return for several Olympic - sized assets , including the speed skating rink , Olympic fieldhouse and a serial publication of ski jumps , the country agreed to pay off the debt [ source : Seymour ] .
Still , Lake Placid holds the accolade of being one of only three cities in the humanity to twice - host the Winter Olympics , along with St. Moritz , Switzerland , and Innsbruck , Austria [ sources : small town of Lake Placid , Johnson ] .
6: 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics
WhenAlbertville , France , decided to supercharge its lagging tourism issue by wish ( successfully ) for the 1992 Winter Olympics , 13 other nearby towns in the French Savoy Alps take care that as a way to get in on the activity too .
The Gallic political science expend more than $ 1 billion propping up the area ’s base between this series of humble Town ; the idea was to make it possible for jock and spectators to well traverse the 620 satisfying kilometers ( 240 square miles ) across which 57Olympic eventswere held [ source : CNBC ] . ( Only the opening and closing ceremonies and some skating result were in reality held in Albertville . )
The political science spent another $ 189 million edifice and ameliorate sports venues . While some the towns garnered moretouristsbecause of improved shipping , both during the Olympics and in the days that followed , Albertville did n’t see any retentive - full term boom . The French governance was go out with another legacy altogether : a $ 67 million going and decades of debt [ source : CNBC ] .
5: 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics
Nagano , Japan , a metropolis of 378,000 , pass a walloping $ 10.5 billion in preparation for the plot , thanks in part to the construction of a bullet gear to bird spectators between Nagano and Tokyo in 90 minutes , about half the typical prison term . But the bullet train had the unfortunate effect of promote tourists to book hotel room in Tokyo as oppose to Nagano . This earned the 1998 event the nickname , " The Commuter Olympics " [ root : Payne , The Economist ] .
As the game draw near , the Nagano Organising Committee had to offset a quarter of the 16,000 Nagano hotel room it had reserved due to scurvy demand . Nearbyski villagesreported that rather of being at 80 percent moving in – the normal degree – they were at a bare 60 percent tenancy as regular tourists manoeuver clear ofslopespresumably crowd with Olympic tourists . In the end , the Olympic Games did n’t play in the crowd nor did it hike tourism as the city had be after [ source : The Economist ] .
The games ran at a passing but the full cost may never be be intimate . During the bidding cognitive operation , the Nagano Organising Committee ply International Olympic Committee member with first - class airline tickets , stays at luxurious resorts , and dear amusement . Later , a member of thebid committeeordered the records – all 90 volumes of them – to be burned . Nagano congresswoman assert about $ 18 million was spent on the Olympian bidding , but critic say the figure was closer to $ 66 million [ source : MacIntyre ] .
4: 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics
Although most Australians know hosting the 2000 Summer Olympic Games was an expensive proposition , most thought the benefit – namely , a foresightful - term boost in tourism – would outweigh the fiscal hazard . Millions find out the Olympic possible action ceremony , a symbolic fruition of Sydney ’s $ 3.8 billion Olympian preparation outlay . A third of that cost was born by taxpayer [ source : CNBC ] .
However , gaol visitor numbers during the Olympics auspicate a different destiny . While the games were largely considered successful , the 132,000 tourer expected to stay inSydneyduring the 17 - day event never materialized . alternatively , there were a bare 97,000visitors . tourist who were n’t interested in the Olympic Games canceled or delayed their visits for fearfulness of crowd [ source : Saunders ] .
And what about the 8 to 10 million tourist a year who were forecast to shoot the breeze Sydney following the Olympics ? They did n’t show up , either . At least not in the expected droves ; instead , a steady 2.5 million visitors have been touring the region , far fewer than the commonwealth had once hop-skip [ informant : Saunders ] .
3: 2004 Athens Summer Olympics
Athens hosted the Summer Olympics a second fourth dimension more than a century later , but with a much more fateful financial result . While the prescribed cost was $ 4.6 billion , the actual toll shred may have been as high as $ 15 billion for specialised athletic complexes that admit the Olympic Beach Volleyball Center and Olympic Tennis Center [ source : Athens Info Guide , CNBC ] .
After the last spectators pull up stakes , many of the venues were never used again . In 2012 , a reporter witnessed a smattering of individuals jog around Athens ' Olympic Sports Complex , parry windswept dust and a series of rust locked gates along the way . Many of the complex ’s amenities , include its tennis courts were shuttered . tough , she learned that a eating house constructed specifically for competitors and VIP was in business organisation for a single hour to host the Hellenic prime minister . New kitchen equipment and chairs in their original promotion lay abandon inside the construction eight old age afterwards [ beginning : Smith ] .
Athens ' Olympic build was funded by the socialist land ’s public investing budget , a move that has taxpayers still footing the bill . Some consider paying for the Olympics helped fire Greece ’s economic crisis in 2009 [ seed : CNBC ] .
2: 2006 Turin Winter Olympics
In the months leading up to the2006 Winter Olympic Games , the organizing committee in Turin , Italy , fight with some tough choices . Faced with funds fall $ 95 million little ( at one time the shortfall climbed to as much as $ 167 million ) and endanger with failure , the labor organizer of the reality ’s largest athletic competition started canceling Olympian parties , and cutting travel and promotional budgets . And then they get originative [ source : Kahn ] .
alternatively of host the Paralympics – a disabled athletic competition traditionally hold keep abreast the Olympics – Turin sold the right to a private - public company for about $ 40 million . Still , the income was n’t enough . So the Italians launch a lottery game to quick stir additional stock . This last - ditch effort lessened the opening , but when the game were over Turin was leave with about $ 49 million in debt . Since then , it has essay to betray some of the particularly constructed Olympian competition venues in promise to finally break even [ author : Kahn ] .
1: 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics
There were a few hiccups along the way but the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver , Canada , seemed deserving the trouble . Case in detail : Even though the metropolis had to mistreat in with funding after the Olympic Village ’s developer ran out of acknowledgment , Canadian athletes won a book 14gold medals , including the Canadian holy grail , the gold inice ice hockey .
regrettably , just as the afterglow of the Canadian athlete ' performance began to wane , Vancouver was go out in a financial pickle .
Vancouver had to grapple with an count on $ 1 billion debt , let in $ 730 million get by the Olympic Village bailout [ germ : CNBC ] . To recoup some of the cost , the city began market the Olympic Village as an environmentally favorable residential neighborhood , hope to convince buyers to move into the many condominium that sit empty . They received only a tepid response .
Sales of luxury condo in the Olympic Village ’s 16 building ( now known as Millennium Water ) were so dull that the project go into receivership and the coordination compound was turn over to Ernst and Young , the firm charged with recouping as much of the urban center ’s debt as potential . Even so , the city and its creditors are n’t expected to ever fully recover its Olympian expenses [ sources : Austen , CNBC ] .
Lots More Information
As much as I love the Olympics ( make iCal appointments so I do n’t drop the opening ceremonies , canceling societal events in favour of Olympic take in marathon , going through an irritable withdrawal method level in the backwash of the closure event ) , there is a part of me that cringes at the cost .
Until I began researching this clause , I did n’t bed how much the global games could cost a legion country . I ’d never even attempted to find out . I was living in a blissful state of unawares , beguiled by the gaudery and majesty of an elite jock ' show window . In retrospect , I was a bit like the countries wish for the chance to host an Olympics : sure of the benefits , eager for the party , convinced the financial monetary value would go down in blood .
