A compelling column appears in the Globe and Mail by Eric Reguly which features a study that claims the Olympic Games always result in a huge cost overrun. It is apparently never possible to keep the games within budget. Why? You can guess at things like the pressure from the organizers, political ego (no really) or maybe the devious plans of would-pro sports owners. An excerpt: “Here is what Brent Flyvbjerg and Allison Stewart of Oxford University said in a landmark study on the cost of the Games between 1960 and 2012: ‘The Games overrun with 100 per cent consistency… Other project types are typically on budget from time to time, but not the Olympics. With an average cost overrun in real terms of 179 per cent – and 324 per cent in nominal terms – overruns in the Games have historically been larger than for other types of megaprojects, including infrastructure, construction and dams. . . “The Pan Am Games infrastructure (already built) is too small for the Olympics and would have to be replaced. A monster Olympic stadium would have to be built and the price tag for that alone could be $1 billion (Canadian). Dubious dealings are virtually guaranteed. Watch the nice men who cherish an NFL franchise in Toronto, but can’t get one without a dazzling new stadium, hijack Toronto’s Olympic stadium plans. What better than to get three levels of government to subsidize the stadium’s construction, then take it over for football?” No guarantees of a franchise of course.
