Kazan Universiade costs $4.5 billion: official

MOSCOW - Preparations for the upcoming Kazan University Games have cost $4.5 billion, president of the International University Sports Federation Claude-Louis Gallien said Friday.

"It's too early to speak of specific amounts, but around 4.5 billion dollars was spent on the preparation for the Universiade," local sports media R-Sports quoted Gallien as saying.

Among the total cost, some 435 million were spent on the athletes' village, another 375 million were spent on the Kazan Arena, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the games.

The Universiade Village, a neighborhood of 53 hectares, was officially established on Saturday. It has a total residential area of 274,000 square meters and can accommodate over 14,500 people.

The Kazan games, slated for July 6 to 17, will become the second expensive one in the Universiade history, behind only the 2011 game in China's southeastern city of Shenzhen which cost some $30 billion, according to the official.

The Games, which features 27 sports and has 351 gold medals up for grabs, has become a sort of engine of the student sports in Russia, head of the country's Students' Sports Union Oleg Matitsyn has said.