The Price of Gold: Is the Olympic Business Model Worth the Cost?"

The Olympic business model is deeply challenged through recurring cost overruns and infrastructure challenges that afflict host cities. Regardless of high demand from sponsors and broadcasters, the financial cost to host cities is heavy, ranging from $5 billion to $25 billion. Reforms such as Olympic Agenda 2020+5 have been introduced by the IOC to advance sustainability and lower costs through utilization of existing venues. Nevertheless, the model is still economically unfeasible for most cities, prompting demands for a permanent or semi-permanent hosting model to minimize economic burden and environmental cost.

Source: Harvard Business Review, Down to Earth, CNN