The 2014 Sochi Olympics are on track to be the costliest ever -- with the Russian government shelling out an estimated $50 billion on the Winter Games and related infrastructure. The plan was to spend $12 billion.

Politicians have long justified the enormous piles of money required to put on the Olympic Games by arguing that ticket sales, construction jobs and increased tourism outweigh the costs.

Related: Most expensive Olympics ever

But most independent economists say the Olympics price tag is more complicated than that -- and certainly not as rosy as politicians portray.

Here are a few cities that won the Games but paid a financial price.

NEXT: Athens