With over 100 events hosted, housing provided for over 1,000 athletes, and more than 300 medals given, the total cost of the olympics was $13 billion dollars. Now the country of South Korea might be regretting their decision to host the winter olympics. For the past few Olympics, the countries that have hosted have found themselves in a little bit of a muck after it is all said and done.
The last Winter Olympics in Sochi became the most expensive Olympics in history, topping off at $51 billion dollars. The previous was the Summer Olympic games in Beijing in 2008. Back in 1976 in Montreal, Canada spent three decades paying back the $207 million they spent–which is actually very little compared to the cost of today’s games.
Many of the venues that are left in Pyeongchang will be left for tourist use, and the money they made from the games will go back into the overall cost of the Olympics. However, these vacant venues could potentially major financial issue for the government.
Most countries that host the olympics in the future will not fully recover from the cost of the Olympics.