Word: billion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Games. It has taken the city more than 30 years to pay off its extravaganza, the cost of which is still not entirely known, according to Humphreys. The Olympic stadium was a particular disaster; originally budgeted for C$156 million, it ended up costing the city C$2 billion, including numerous fixes to the roof and years of interest payments. The Quebec government had to introduce a special tobacco tax to help pay down its Olympic investment...
...Vancouver, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2010, has already had its debt rating downgraded because its Olympic Village has turned into a money pit that could end up costing taxpayers as much as $1 billion. As for the total price tag for Vancouver's Games, estimates vary from $1.6 billion to $5.5 billion. (Read "In Hard Times, Olympic Plans Go On a Budget...
...there is one Olympic city for Chicago to emulate, it would be Atlanta. The city's $1.7 billion privately funded Summer Games in 1996 sparked a construction boom in the city's downtown core and, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, generated $5 billion in economic activity, including $1.8 billion in hotel, residential and commercial construction. What's more, the city found long-term uses for its Olympic venues, transferring the Olympic stadium and village to the Atlanta Braves and Georgia State University, respectively. "The Olympics gave Atlanta a tremendous boost in commerce," says Sam Williams, president...
Chicago estimates that the cost of hosting the 2016 Olympics will be $4.8 billion. If its bid finds favor with the IOC this week in Copenhagen, the city might be well advised to get venues shovel-ready as quickly as possible, for it has one advantage that Atlanta didn't: access to a portion of Washington's $787 billion economic stimulus package, much of which is still being allocated...
...Tuesday, the cash-depleted FDIC hatched a plan to require banks to prepay three years of quarterly fees. The FDIC expects to quickly generate $45 billion in cash, an amount it normally would've had to wait years to get its hands on. But in a quirk of accounting rules, the banks won't have to expense the upfront payments this year, even though they will be handing over the cash in the next few months - in amounts that could run into the billions of dollars for some banks. The FDIC says the move will solve its liquidity problems...