The opening ceremonies at the Shenzhen Universiade

The numbers have been crunched and the final bill has been sent to the Shenzhen government for the 2011 Universiade, and it’s not cheap.

A report by the city’s auditor shows Shenzhen spent RMB 14 billion on hosting the games, which included new venues, upgrades to transport infrastructure and security.  Yet the games only generated RMB 1.2 billion in revenue for a total loss of RMB 12.8 billion.

While thoughts of official corruption and siphoning off funds for cronies springs to mind as a possible cause of the waste, the report says corruption and crime was not a major factor in the loss, according to the South China Morning Post (behind a paywall):

The auditor said it found no evidence of serious crimes involving the games, also known as the Universiade, despite investigations and prosecutions of at least eight senior officials, including former Shenzhen mayor Xu Zongheng, which some had attributed to spending in preparation for the event. Xu received a suspended death sentence in May last year.

“[The audit bureau] traced the Universiade’s preparation and operation between January 2008 and September 2012 and hasn’t found any serious violation of laws and discipline from operational spending to stadium construction,” the report said. It made no mention of the officials concerned.

The auditor did say, however, that it found 50 million yuan in “problematic” spending, such as 11 million yuan in purchases outside of procedures and 12 million yuan that was not spent according to budget.

The report noted several small problems, including 745,500 yuan spent on fuel for a sailing competition which only needed a fraction of that.

Rather than viewing the expense in relation to hosting the games, perhaps they are viewed more accurately as the cost of modernizing the city’s transport network and other infrastructure. Still, losing RMB 12.8 billion is a lot of cash, and appears to be the exact price a city must pay for a little international prestige.