Montreal’s Olympic stadium a budget buster: study

MONTREAL – The Montreal Olympic stadium has just been given a new nickname – the world’s top Monumental Budget Buster.

A study done by Podio lists the top 24 costly monuments and describes them as “‘hell on wheels,’ ‘malice in blunderland,’ and ‘a field of dreams’; welcome to a run-down of some of the world’s most eye-wateringly over-budget projects.”

The Olympic stadium topped the list by a long shot.

The Big O – or the Big Owe – cost $3,107,148,660 to build, which is much higher than its original $148,667,400 budget.

That’s about 1990 per cent more than expected, according to the study.

The monument was also famously not completed on time.

In fact, work on some major components like the mast and retractable roof didn’t begin until after the 1976 summer Olympics were over.

Coming in second on the list was the Sydney Opera House in Australia, which was over budget by 1,357 per cent.

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