Olympic 'curse' strikes again as Beijing costs mount

The Shougang Big Air venue will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding

The "curse" of Olympic overspending looks set to strike again at the Beijing Games, with stringent Covid measures and loss of ticket sale revenues pushing up costs for China.

It's not unusual for nations to find the bill for hosting an Olympics ballooning, but the pandemic and China's zero-Covid approach has made preparations for the February 4-20 Winter Games particularly difficult.

Instead, invitations will be given to select people. The organising committee had originally calculated ticketing revenue to be worth $118 million.

Budget was a key part of China being awarded the Games, with Beijing winning the bid over only one other contender as other cities backed out over high costs.

However he pointed out that others could be reduced, without giving specifics.

In 2015, Beijing said it was counting on a budget of just over $3 billion, which included the costs of organising and building sports facilities.

The cost of hosting the Olympics usually doubles between the award date and the opening ceremony, experts say.

"Whoever wins them gets screwed," he said.

The pandemic has brought additional problems and costs. 

That was even as organisers said they had saved cash by simplifying events and avoiding the cost of hosting fans, with most events closed to spectators.

In Beijing, athletes, support staff, volunteers and journalists will all be kept in a "closed loop" to prevent any contact with the population and limit the risk of contamination. 

Andreff said the absence of international spectators should not be underestimated.

But Andrew Zimbalist, specialist in sports economics at Smith College in the United States, cautioned that even without the virus, assumptions the Games draw more tourists were not necessarily correct.

"Normal tourists were discouraged from going to Beijing 2008 because they were concerned about congestion, high prices and the possibility of terrorism or other potentially dangerous incidents," he said.

- All about image - 

The government committed to introducing 300 million Chinese to winter sports –- a goal achieved, according to official figures -- which they hope will generate a profitable future industry.

The Yanqing resort, for example, was built especially for the Olympics -- constructing the first track in China for bobsleigh, skeleton and luge from scratch.  

He said this reallocation will allow authorities to claim the Games were both "successful and at a lower cost".

"They don't look at how much it will cost," he said.

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