Olympic-sized budget shows hefty prices, costly perks

SALT LAKE CITY -- The hotel tab for the IOC is $1.3 million. Salt Lake Olympic organizers will shell out another $640,050 for Olympic family perks. Olympic ceremonies will cost $37.6 million.

After all that, there's $32.8 million for sports.

The Olympics have grown into an expensive extravaganza, where sporting events cost less than the pomp, pageantry and the elaborate technology, according to a budget released to The Associated Press by organizers of the 2002 Winter Games.

The costs are so large, the logistics so daunting and economic payoff so meager that Salt Lake Olympic chief Mitt Romney has questioned whether U.S. cities should bother bidding for the games. The Olympics, he has said, are driven by "giganticism" with more sports, demonstration sports and frills added every two years.

"It's a fair question for people to ask, 'Is it worth it or not?"' Romney said Friday. "My own position is the games make sense not as a money making enterprise but as a statement for peace."

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has said reducing the size and cost of the Olympics is a priority.

Many of the costs are mandated by the IOC, which requires Olympic cities to assume full financial responsibility. Then it takes a cut of the sponsorship pacts.

When Salt Lake City signed its contract with the IOC, city attorney Roger Cutler complained in a memo that the deal was "open-ended, one-sided and onerous."