These Are the Actual Costs of the Rio Olympics

There’s a reason why few cities want to host the Games these days.

Charlie Riedel/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


As Summer Olympics organizers attempt to pull off a “cool” opening ceremony Friday at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium, many Brazilians are already fed up with the multibillion-dollar spectacle that economists have called a “money-losing proposition.”

Every Olympics since the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France, has run over its initial budget, according to a working paper at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School. Long overshadowed by Brazil’s economic, political, and social instability, Rio 2016 is about to do the same.

 

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate