# Olympics-finances **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2000, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976 "2000-09-21T07:25:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/1 "2000-09-21T07:25:49Z")
NBC apparently paid 750 million for TV rights for Olympic 2000 games. Are other countries licensed by NBC for film rights or do they also pay directly. Also how are these monies utilized?..pays for transportation of athletes from home country to Sydney?..uniforms…Hotels etc? Is the host country on the hook for all the venues built especially for the games? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/2 "2000-09-21T16:39:07Z")
Other countries pay the IOC to televise the game. The CBC didn’t pay as much, so they don’t care as much about ratings, so they can show stuff live. I believe that transportation and outfitting for athletes and officials are mainly borne by their respective Olympic Committees. The local organizing committee has primary responsibility for building the venues and housing and feeding the athletes. There probably are exceptions to all these depending upon circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/3 "2000-09-21T21:08:39Z")
What I’m wondering is what is that 750,000,000 US dollars used for? not to mention the moneys from other countrys rights to film the games. Is the money distributed to the various countrys to use as they see fit as long as it concerns the olympics? And what about the IOC’s piece-of-the-action from all other situations? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/4 "2000-09-21T22:45:21Z")
If you find out where all the money from the Olympics goes, you can probably write a very good book or end up getting killed by somebody for nosing around too much. I don’t believe the IOC has an open accounting system. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/5 "2000-09-22T04:11:53Z")
Here’s [a news story about the cost of hosting an Olympics](http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/hostcities_000920.html). ---
**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/6 "2000-09-22T04:58:33Z")
AudreyK: Thanks for pointing this article out to me. That helped answer a lot of my questions. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/7 "2000-09-22T08:17:25Z")
Anytime. ---
**Author:** ![Zenman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@Zenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-finances/33976/8 "2000-09-22T17:11:47Z")
If you want to sit back and enjoy the Olympic pageant, it’s probably best not to examine the finances and backroom deals that make this allegedly ‘amateur’ organization run. The Salt Lake City fiasco is more than likely the tippy-top of an iceburg of corruption, payoffs and good-old-boy deals that makes the Clinton Administration look like a Boy Scout Jamboree. The amount of monies that news organizations and broadcasters have to pay is appalling. The amount of cash being spent by the host nation and city is truly scary. The question, as always it ‘Who Profits?’. Someone’s becoming very rich over all this, and it’s not a swimmer from Camaroon.