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In many countries the interest in the Olympic Games seems to have changed. The media raises the question whether cities will compete to host the Olympic Games in the future (Bull 2016). It is evident that some applicant cities have withdrawn their bids for different reasons.

In any investment or other economic project that is going to last over several years between its inception date and its delivery date on time, the effectively achieved (ex-post) cost in may happen to be higher than the announced (ex-ante) cost in . The longer is, the higher the risk that such a difference will emerge. This is clearly shown in our literature review in which we listed many reasons for that.

It is not easy to collect financial data for a complex event such as the Olympic Games. During our research it very soon became clear that often the financial data of capital investments disappeared or were hidden or in ever-changing mixed categories.

The results section is twofold. First, we will look at all Games levels, providing information for each of the 10 investigated Olympic Games. In a second results section, we will look across the various Games, which enables us to suggest interpretations by cost (revenue) groupings or categories. Finally, we present our overall findings.

In this Results II section, we look separately at OCOG revenue and expenditure categories and also at the individual venues in the non-OCOG budgets. To do so, we first separate the data by distinguishing between the Olympic Games and the Olympic Winter Games. We display for each category the minimum and maximum final deviations from the projected budget to the final budget and its evolution.

In this reflection we offer explanations about the different drivers that initiate cost and revenue overruns. Before we issue our 17 recommendations, we will use several theories that help us to understand why cost and revenue overruns occur. The theory is important to consider because it will emphasise our recommendations.