An article in La Stampa has underlined this fact with figures calculated as part of a study by the state agency Sviluppo Italia. The bob run, which cost around €70 m to build, is costing a further €2.2 m a year to service and operate. If yearly revenue is assumed to be €0.5 m, this leaves an annual loss of €1.7 m. The ski jump, for its part, cost approx. €35 m to build and is expected to run up an annual deficit of one million Euros. The operation and maintenance of the ice rinks will also entail losses in the millions.
Indeed, it has been calculated that the administration and operation of the Olympic infrastructure over the next five years will require financing worth €63.6 m. Almost half that sum is expected to be needed to cover the operating losses alone. Given this backdrop it is not surprising that a partial dismantling of the infrastructure is currently under consideration. Running costs such as these hardly come as a surprise, given the similar experience made with events of this kind in the past. Some lessons have been learnt in Turin with regard to environmental matters, an in which according to a current study by the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) the 2006 Winter Games have done relatively well.
Source: La Stampa 29.11.2006