It turns out that most cities don’t benefit very much at all. There’s an interesting story on NPR about it. Mostly they benefit, if at all, from increased international exposure which increases the world’s willingness to take the city seriously as a trade partner. As far as direct benefits go, “There has never been an Olympic Games that has made a profit,” says Robert Barney, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario. This is because all the costs usually aren’t figured in when deciding if a city has made a profit. From the same article: “Actually, tangible economic benefits are elusive. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics are often hailed for finishing with a $233 million surplus. But Barney says the calculation includes only direct costs of staging the games and not the indirect costs provided by city, state and federal governments. The same is true, he says, for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Organizers of both games claimed multimillion-dollar surpluses, but neither included massive federal spending when adding up costs.”