Colorado's interest in hosting Olympics comes down to cost, study shows

As much as Colorado has changed in the last 50 years, one thing remains.

There’s still resistance to the idea of hosting the Olympics, especially if it means using taxpayer dollars.

Despite the Centennial State’s natural advantages and a population that’s nearly tripled since Coloradans voted against publicly funded plans for Denver to host the 1976 Winter Games, a recent study by Boulder-based political scientist Samantha Register, which was published by Urban Affairs Review, found the source of funding significantly swung Colorado voters’ Olympic appetite.

Data from the Colorado Political Climate Survey showed support from Democrats dropped from 68% approval to 57% when public funding was mentioned, while Republican support plummeted from 59% to 27% based on the source of funding.

"If a city is hosting the Games, people want to know how that will affect the average resident,” Register told CU Boulder Today. "Most people aren’t going to be able to get to tickets to the sporting events or the opening and closing ceremonies."

That looks like a significant challenge.

The International Olympic Committee’s website states, “Hosting the Olympic Games generates powerful economic benefits. It enables a region and country to develop: the knowledge and skills of their workforce and volunteers; career opportunities; the tourism and events industry; the business sector; their global profile; and diplomatic relations.”

Independent reports aren’t as convinced.

Hosting the games requires a financial investment measured in the billions to accommodate all the competitions at a world-class level. Many of those new venues go unused once the Olympics move on to their next destination. The Winter Games have added freestyle skiing, short-track speed skating, snowboarding, skeleton and other events since Denver declined the bid, and ski mountaineering will be added for the 2026 games in Milan. A study from the University of Oxford estimated the final cost of hosting tripled the bid fee.

A boom in broadcasting rights has helped offset the cost of hosting in the new millennium, but the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) recently found the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles was the only one to turn a profit, which was largely based on the number of existing stadiums in the area. That economic success led to bidding becoming more competitive, especially among developing nations eager to showcase their growth to the rest of the world.

Russia reportedly spent $50 billion on the 2014 games in Sochi only to abandon most of the additional infrastructure months after the games ended. CFR reported Montreal finally paid off the debt incurred by the 1976 Games in 2006, while the 2004 Olympics in Athens played into Greece’s economic collapse.

There’s a lot for Coloradans to consider when it comes to another Olympic bid, and local voters will again have the opportunity to nix any public money being spent on a future bid after Initiative 302 passed in 2019.

“If city organizers want to win public support for the Olympics, they're going to have to address what exactly are the costs to the public and make it clear why they think the costs will be worth it,” Register said.