Should anyone invest in the Olympics?
What you need to know. Quick Facts.
Presented by Firmex
Navigate with Arrow Keys
When it all started...
The first Modern Olympics
were held 1896 in Athens, Greece
costing 3,740,000 drachmas, or
$13 million today
If at first you don't succeed
Turkey has bid for
every Olympics since 2000,
spending over $200 million
on bids alone
Turkish Olympic Law (enacted 2000) states that Istanbul must bid for the Olympic Games until it succeeds
Speed Skating Championship
Budget... what budget?
Every Olympics from
2002 to 2012 went over budget by
1.7 - 4.2 times
Most games exceed the initial budget by massive amounts
Olympic Bob Sleigh
Go Big or Go Home
In 1964 the Tokyo Olympics
were a game-changer for spending,
costing $15.5 billion in today's dollars
Tokyo spent approximately the national budget on their Olympic games
Tokyo opening ceremonies
When things don’t work out
The worst Olympic investment
was the 1976 Montreal games,
exceeding the budget by
11.9 times
It took 30 years to pay off (2006)
Montreal Olympic Stadium
Show me the money!
The biggest cash payout
for an Olympics was in 1988 for
Seoul, South Korea which brought home
an astonishing $479 million
That's $125 million more than original estimates
1988 Olympic Torch
Winning Gold - When things go right
The highest return for a games
were the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics,
earning $222.7 million or nearly
300% the city's investment
It was the first Olympics since 1932 to make money
1984 Gold Medal
Setting a new world record!
The most expensive Olympic games
are the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
estimated to cost $52 billion
That's more than the cost of every past winter Olympics combined
1980's Soviet Weightlifter Leonid Taranenko
