2004 The Greek Olympic Games

In August 2004, Athens hosted the summer Olympic Games and one of the aims was to generate profit to finance the government expenses. Athens spent huge amount of money hosting the game and it significantly improved infrastructure, including a new airport, ring road, and subway system. According to the cost-benefit evaluation of the impact of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games presented to the Greek Parliament in January 2013 by the Minister of Finance Mr. Giannis Stournaras, the overall net economic benefit of the games for Greece was positive.

The overall revenue of The Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC), including income from tickets, sponsors, broadcasting rights, merchandise sales etc., totalled 2,098.4 million euro. The largest percentage of that income (38%) came from broadcasting rights. The overall expenditure of ATHOC was 1,967.8 million euro.

However, some pointed out that the cost of the game was underestimated and the economic benefit was overestimated and at a result there might be a deficit instead of a profit. Some even stated overspending on the Olympics as a major contributor to Greece's financial problems.

According to the Greek embassy, Greece estimated it would spend 4.5 billion euro for the event, but ended up spending 8.594 billion euro, not including the cost of projects and construction completed due to the Games. BBC even reported that the cost of the Athens 2004 Olympics Games was close to 10 billion euros, doubled the initial budget. “Greece ended up paying for an event it could not afford.” After the event, more than half of Athens' Olympic sites were barely used. A spokeperson of Greece said they didn't even have the money to maintain the facilities, and they were left with installations that were rotting away.

It seems that it is difficult to judge whether the game brought greater benefit than loss to Greece, because of the differences in calculating method. Therefore, it remains a controversial issue and people keep arguing on it.