Olympic Games in Budapest – How much would it cost?

Date: 9 May 2006, Budapest

The Budapest Olympics Movement asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to update the feasibility study for the Olympic Games in 2012 which was prepared by the professional services firm four years ago. Earlier PwC contributed to the feasibility studies of the Olympic Games in London and Sydney.

PricewaterhouseCoopers won the public procurement tender in February 2002 and prepared the feasibility study for the XXX. Summer Olympic Games and the XIV. Paralympics. The vast, 1500-pages study analyzed the economic, technical and logistical conditions in detail.

More than 100 Hungarian and international expert teams contributed to the feasibility study which was also used by the Hungarian government when preparing the first National Development Plan.

“A major part of the study is still up-to-date, so we do not have to prepare a completely new one” – said Dr. Gusztáv Bienerth, partner at PwC Budapest.

Obviously, as a result of the changes in the conditions of the feasibility in the last years some parts of the study have to rewritten. Updating the study will take 15 weeks for PwC and the expert teams which contributed to the 2002 version.

What changes made the update necessary?

• the Olympic Games in Budapest would take place four years later (in 2016 instead of 2012);
• Hungary’s EU-Accession and its consequences (clearer priorities of using the financial support of the EU-Funds in Hungary, experiences of the first National Development Plan, priorities of the second National Development Plan and major infrastructural developments since 2002 – new motorways and railways);
• changes in the Hungarian economy and in the economic priorities, preparation for the introduction of the Euro;
• changes in the exchanges rate of HUF;
• lessons of the Olympic Games in Athens and the application for the 2012 Games;
• development programs launched by the local government of Budapest since 2002 (e.g. Podmaniczky plan);
• changes in the development plans of Budapest and Hungary since 2002.

• costs and time plan of the infrastructural developments;
• the expected costs of the Games based on the experiences of Athens and the application for the 2012 Olympic Games;
• financial support from the EU-Funds, the private sector and the government;
• comparison between the current economic priorities and the planned developments, impacts of the budget burdens on growth and the structure of the budget.