Milano Cortina comes to an end; Cooper Woods, Danielle Scott to carry flag for Australia in Verona
Hours before the curtain officially rose on Milan Cortina 2026, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Verona in a rally over housing costs and environmental concerns linked to the event.
The protest, marching behind a banner reading “Olimpiadi no grazie” (“Olympics no, thank you”), was organized by university students and associations opposed to the Winter Olympics, which are said to deepen social inequality and pour concrete into fragile soil.
“We are here to protect our region from speculation and the impossible costs of attending events,” said 76-year-old activist Giannina Dal Bosco, according to Reuters.
Other protesters criticized the fact that public money was being invested in Olympic facilities that could not be used after the event, rather than housing.
Arena di Verona, the ancient Roman amphitheater where the closing ceremony took place, is slightly smaller than Milan’s San Siro Stadium (22,000 seats compared to 76,000). This means closing ceremony tickets are harder to come by and sellers take full advantage.
As of Friday, tickets were selling for as low as €3190 ($5317) and as high as €6380 ($10,634), according to the Milan Cortina 2026 ticket website. That’s a minimum of $2658.50 per hour for the event.
Hosting an Olympic event can be a financial hit or miss for host cities. Milano Cortina 2026’s operating budget, for example, jumped from US$1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) to US$1.7 billion ($2.4 billion), which is separate from other public infrastructure costs such as venue construction, which also involved US$3.5 billion ($5 billion) of public money, Reuters reported.
Initial estimates suggested Milan Cortina 2026 would have an economic impact of €5.3 billion ($9 billion) in Italy. Approximately 10,000 protesters attended a demonstration in Milan on the first day of the Winter Olympics, which turned violent.
