Tokyo Olympics might cost $15 bln, 6 times orginal estimate: report

Tokyo (AFP) - The cost of staging the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will hit nearly $15 billion -- six times the original estimate, Japanese media have reported.

In a fresh blow to Tokyo's plans for the Games, both national and local taxpayers will have to help foot the huge increase in the bill to stage the sporting event, the Sankei Shimbun said Saturday.

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Tokyo government expect the eventual cost of holding the Games to be 1.8 trillion yen ($14.84 billion), compared with the original estimate of 301.3 billion yen, Kyodo News said on Friday .... http://news.yahoo.com