Los Angeles wants to blow billions of tax dollars…

The Olympics are a spectacle. The athletes are incredible to watch. But hosting the games is a usually a big money-loser for the venue city.

Russia went $39 billion over budget hosting the 2014 Sochi games. Vancouver ended up $1 billion in debt after hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. Athens spent about $16 billion – roughly 5% of Greece’s GDP – on the 2004 Summer Olympics. Some economists say the huge cost even contributed to Greece’s debt crisis.

Now Los Angeles wants a turn to lose money. On Tuesday, it was named as the U.S. bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Los Angeles thinks holding the Olympics would cost $4.1 billion in taxpayer money, plus another $1 billion it hopes to get from private partners. The city has already guaranteed it would cover any additional costs.
As Bloomberg Politics explains, there’s zero evidence that the Olympics provide any economic stimulus to the host city.

“They have a lot going for them, but there are risks involved,”
said sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, who wrote a book about the costs of the Olympics and the World Cup. “Every city we’ve looked at since 1960 that’s hosted the Olympics has had a cost overrun. There’s not any evidence that this helps the city economically…”

Zimbalist estimates the city, with an annual budget of about $8 billion, should expect cost overruns of as much as $2 billion.