The 1976 Summer Olympic Games will have...

The 1976 Summer Olympic Games will have cost more than $3.5 billion by the time the City of Montreal makes its last payment on the debt in 1995, a Montreal newspaper reported.

La Presse said the figure, calculated using data provided by the city and the province’s Olympic Installations Board, includes interest payments of $763 million on loans negotiated by the Quebec government and $520 million on loans made by the city.

It also includes $1.33 billion for construction of the Olympic facilities, $170 million to complete work on the installations in the Olympic park, $176 million in indirect costs, $92 million still to be spent on completion of the stadium tower and installation of the retractable roof and $1.25 billion in interest payments made by the installations board.

In 1980 the provincial inquiry into Olympic cost overruns severely criticized the administration of Mayor Jean Drapeau, who once promised the Games would be self-financing and would not cost taxpayers a cent. The 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles showed a profit of approximately $250 million.