South Korea is spending billions on hosting the event, but experts don’t expect a big payoff.
Over 100 events, nearly 3,000 athletes, more than 300 medals — and a check for $13 billion.
That’s the cost of holding the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The hefty price Olympic host countries pay have prompted some experts to ask whether it’s worth the financial burden.
Olympic events have become notorious for cost overruns and broken promises of economic windfalls. The 2014 Winter Games in the Russian resort of Sochi cost an eye-watering $50 billion. Perhaps most famously, Montreal spent three decades paying back debts after the 1976 Olympics.
Will Pyeongchang face a similar fate?
Some analysts are optimistic. South Korea’s Hyundai Research Institute has forecast that the Winter Olympics will generate economic activity of about $40 billion. That will come mainly from spending by tourists both during the Games and in subsequent years.
Uncertain legacy
But plenty of experts are skeptical this economic bonanza will ever materialize.
«I don’t think the government or organizing committee is going to get their money back,» said Park Sung-bae, associate professor at Hanyang University’s department of sport industry and management. The cost of hosting the event already ballooned from earlier forecasts of about $8 billion.
South Korea wants to turn Pyeongchang into a tourist destination for winter sports after the games. It has built several new venues with that goal in mind — but they face an uncertain future.
The 35,000-seat Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium was built to host just two events — the opening and closing ceremonies. It will be partially dismantled and turned into a memorial hall and theater.
