Montreal Closes In On Olympic Debt

The city of Montreal hopes to finally pay off a $1.2 billion deficit next year from hosting the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Cost overruns for facilities including the 67,822-capacity Olympic Stadium – dubbed “The Big Owe” – left the city with a debt that has lasted nearly three decades.

Montreal hopes to erase the last of the debt with a new cigarette tax.

The Olympic Stadium’s last major concert on record was in 1997, when U2 sold out with 48,855 attendees.