Sunday, July 05, 2009

Does It Pay to Host the Olympics?

This was an article in Parade magazine today. You can read it at Does It Pay to Host the Olympics?. It can cost a city $50 million just to go through the bidding process. It is not clear that the benefits always outweighs the costs. Here is an exerpt:

"The 2004 Athens Olympics cost more than $11 billion and brought the city only about $2.8 billion in revenue. China has not released earnings from the 2008 Games in Beijing, but the $43 billion price tag shattered all Olympic records."

Montreal took 30 years to payoff the cost of the 1976 olympics. Chicago could spend up to $5 billion if they are the host of the 2012 summer olympics. Atlanta seems to have put its olympic buildings to good use.

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