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Team USA basketball opted to nix accommodations at the Olympic Village in Paris, instead choosing to stay in an off-site hotel that has been kept secret from the public. While no one’s quite sure where the squad has made its home base, there have been reports detailing the estimated cost of that decision.
LeBron James and Co. are racking up a $15 million bill for the sake of privacy and comfort. The astronomical number far exceeds the typical American team stay.
More from Forbes:
For most American squads at the Games, lodging, transportation and security might run $400,000…
In most years, USA Basketball, the sport’s national governing body, has placed its athletes in luxury hotels outside the Olympic ecosystem… Regardless of where exactly they stay—this year’s lucky hotel is being kept secret—putting up two dozen star players plus team staff and family members in roughly 700 rooms is never easy, nor is it cheap.
Between USA Basketball’s outlay and other resources provided by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the State Department, Forbes estimates it cost $15 million to send the American basketball squads to the Olympics, an astronomical figure compared with other sports.
The article points out that this has become the norm for Team USA basketball dating back to the early 1990s. Privacy is of top concern, which makes sense given the players’ global celebrity.
That said, the bill is roughly 37x the cost of fellow US Olympians, though the team’s historical dominance at the Olympic Games certainly helps with the argument.
This year’s group has the luxury of missing out on what many have described as poor conditions in the Olympic Village. Rooms have no air conditioning units, which has become a topic of conversation given the heat wave rolling through Paris.
Food has also been criticized, and those tiny cardboard beds likely wouldn’t fit many of the players’ massive frames.
The luxurious stay has worked out thus far for the basketball squad. Through three games, Team USA is a perfect 3-0, winning those contests by an average of 21 points.
The athletes’ status certainly allows for a larger budget, and thus far, the results are hard to argue!