Last year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro cost $4.6 billion, 51% more than originally budgeted. You’d think the team in charge of budgeting the event would have a hard time ever finding a job again, but that’s probably not what’s happening. By Olympic standards, it wasn’t that bad — Sochi 2014 went over budget by 289%; London 2012, by 76%; and in 1976, the Montreal games cost 720% more than budgeted. The city spent the next 30 years paying off the debt.
How Much the Olympic Games Really Cost
According to a research paper produced for Said Business School at Oxford University, not only do all Olympic Games go over budget, they’re also the only type of mega-event to do so. The team at HowMuch.net extracted the data from the study and put together this infographic that will make you stop hoping your city will ever host the Olympics. 
