Accessibility links

Breaking News

Rio Olympics Price Tag Rises to $13.2 Billion


This Feb. 2, 2017, photo shows Maracana stadium's dry playing field in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The stadium was renovated for the 2014 World Cup at a cost of about $500 million, and largely abandoned after the Olympics and Paralympics, then hit by vandals who ripped out thousands of seats and stole televisions.
This Feb. 2, 2017, photo shows Maracana stadium's dry playing field in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The stadium was renovated for the 2014 World Cup at a cost of about $500 million, and largely abandoned after the Olympics and Paralympics, then hit by vandals who ripped out thousands of seats and stole televisions.

The cost of last year's Rio Olympics has risen to 43.3 billion reais ($13.2 billion), around 14.5 billion reais more than originally planned, according to figures published by the federal agency for Olympic legacy (AGLO) on Wednesday.

The original budget when Brazil won the right to host the Games in 2009 was around 28.8 billion reais.

The total announced on Wednesday could still rise further, but it was in keeping with expectations that had been revised during the countdown to South America's first Olympics.

The cost is below the 8.92 billion pounds ($14.3 billion) spent on London 2012, but still more than twice the $5.2 billion average cost of hosting the Summer Games, according to a 2015 study by the University of Oxford and Said Business School.

This Feb. 2, 2017, photo shows seats jumbled in a pile inside Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The historic stadium was the site of the opening and closing ceremony.
This Feb. 2, 2017, photo shows seats jumbled in a pile inside Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The historic stadium was the site of the opening and closing ceremony.

Some 7.23 billion reais was spent on venues, AGLO said.

The Globo sports website reported that the cost of infrastructure projects rose to 26.7 billion reais and another 9.2 billion reais was spent on operating costs.

Rio de Janeiro, which hosted the Olympics in August and the Paralympics in September, has been criticized for a lack of legacy planning, with some of the venues abandoned soon after the closing ceremony.

Other infrastructure projects, including a new metro line that does not extend all the way to the main Olympic Park, have had their effectiveness questioned.

This Feb. 4, 2017, photo shows translucent tapestries created by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejao, falling from the exterior of Olympic Aquatic stadium inside Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympic Park is now a cutting-edge ghost town.
This Feb. 4, 2017, photo shows translucent tapestries created by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejao, falling from the exterior of Olympic Aquatic stadium inside Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympic Park is now a cutting-edge ghost town.

Officials said that legacy planning was a major challenge but that they intended to hold an average of three events a month at the Olympic venues starting this June, a number they hope will increase to 10 events a month by December.

“It's not easy to manage the legacy,” AGLO president Paulo Marcio Dias Mello told reporters. “London, for example, took two years to deliver the legacy and even today there is public investment in that legacy.”

“Even if it doesn't meet everyone's expectations, it will be a relief that what we have here will not be white elephants.”

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG