Costliest – at $20bn

THE Tokyo Games will be the most expensive on record with the year-long Covid-19 delay pushing costs out to well above $20bn.

The Games have been hit with rising construction costs, the need to build temporary venues, and other logistical headaches caused by the delay.

A further blow came just two weeks ago when organisers decided the risk of a Covid-19 outbreak was too great to allow spectators to attend events in Tokyo.

Tickets sales had been expected to generate $1bn for organisers but will now bring in just a fraction of that, with some spectators allowed to attend events at venues outside Tokyo.

Tokyo had initially claimed the costs would be the equivalent of about $A10bn at today’s conversion rates when the nation won the bid in 2013.

But in December, organisers said the estimated cost would now be $US15.4bn – about $A20bn. The postponement costs have risen to about $4bn.

Sponsorship has also proved problematic. While sponsors have forked out about $4bn, the decision to hold the Games in Japan has proved so unpopular with many residents that one of the major sponsors, Toyota, has withdrawn its Games-related advertising – featuring local athletes – from TV, radio and other media in Japan.

Tokyo 2020 has declined to comment on precisely what the budget blowout is, saying it had never confirmed numbers published in local media.

Oxford University in the UK published a report last year which found the Tokyo Olympics were already the most expensive summer Games on record, even before final delay costs were factored in.

Oxford scholar and economist Bent Flyvbjerg said in September that the cost overrun at that point was already more than 200 per cent.

His study did not include other taxpayer-funded costs such as improving roads and streetscapes, as most host cities did ahead of hosting an Olympic Games.