What Was the Cost of Construction of the 2010 Olympics

I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the likes of Lindsay Von, Bodie Miller, and Apolo Anoton Ohno rake in medals at the Olympics in Vancouver this year.  I couldn’t help but wonder how many of these fantastic facilities were new and how much money was thrown into these games for the construction of new buildings.  I did a little research and found loads and loads of information.  But, I couldn’t find exactly how much was spent on construction alone versus how much was spent to operate the games.  However, from what I have gathered, I think I can safely say that about $5 billion was spend on construction of new facilities and roadways for the Olympics.

Ironically, the most expensive of these projects was not a facility intended to house Olympic events, but rather a building, or should I say village, intended to house Olympic athletes, coaches, and officials.  The Vancouver Olympic Village is a 600,000 square foot facility with over 600 units will accommodate about 2500 Olympic participants.  And at a price-tag of $1 billion, it provides some of the finest housing Olympic athletes have ever seen.  At least according to U.S. speedskater Chad Hedrick who was quoted in a recent Time Magazine article as saying, “It’s blown us away, to be honest.”  Of course Vancouver taxpayers had to bail out the private developers who initially funded the project, but maybe the taxpayer scorn will be alleviated by the fact that the neigborhood received LEED Platinum certification while all the buildings received LEED Gold.

Another major project in this deal was the Sea to Sky Highway which was a widening and renovation to Highway 99 which links Vancouver and Whistler mountain.  I traveled along this gnarly stretch of two-lane gristle back in the early 2000s before Vancouver was awarded the Olympics.  This was obviously one of the required improvements to British Columbia in order to facilitate an Olympics.  It was nicknamed, “Ski and Die Highway” prior to the improvements so it will most likely benefit BC well beyond the games.  The price-tag on this was $600 million.

Other projects included a $150 million renovation to the BC Place Stadium which holds the opening and closing ceremonies, the $178 million LEED certified Richmond Olympic Oval hosting speedskating, and the $40 million LEED certified Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Center hosting only curling, but will be converted into a community recreation center after the Olympics.

This year’s Olympics also got me thinking about when the next American winter games will be held.  For the past ten years my prediction has been and remains to be….Denver 2022.  I wavered for a while about whether they will go for an Olympic bid in 2018 or 2022, but from what I’ve read it looks like ‘022 is the answer – it has to.  Colorado has long been the leader in winter sports in this country and by now, tempers have settled after their little spat with the IOC back in the ’70s.

So let’s get about $10 billion queued up and get the games in Denver for 2022.