Even As Olympic Costs Climb, France Says They Are Quite Cheap

The Olympic Aquatics Centre (foreground), the renovated Stade de France and the footbridge that will join them have added to the bill for Paris (Credit: AFP)

The final bill for the Paris Olympics is still unknown but, depending on the point of view, are likely to be expensive compared to original estimates or cheap, when set against other recent Games.

The total is currently approaching 9.0 billion euros ($9.66 billion dollars), but is likely to pass 10 billion euros, forcing additional contributions from the government for an Olympics planned under the mantra "the Games finance the Games".