Tokyo organizers face more cost increases for 2020 Oly

TOKYO, July 27, (Agencies): While Rio Olympic organizers are under immense pressure to finish preparations before Aug 5, their Tokyo counterparts are already facing skyrocketing costs for an event four years away.

Tokyo 2020 organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori acknowledged at an executive board meeting this week the cost of building seven temporary venues for the Olympics has surged to an estimated $2.6 billion, up from an initial estimate of $690 million.

Mori said the original figures were the result of sloppy calculations which he blamed on the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Japanese Olympic Committee.

The organizing committee hasn’t disclosed an official estimate of the overall costs but has acknowledged it will be considerably higher than the $3.5 billion that was forecast in the bid.

Preparations for the 2020 Games have been plagued by a series of scandals involving the new national stadium, the official logo and allegations of bribery in the bidding process.

Work on the new national stadium has fallen behind schedule because the government abandoned an original design due to spiraling costs.

The total costs for staging the Tokyo Olympics are shared by the organizing committee, the Tokyo municipal government and the national

Mori

government.

Tokyo organizers say they have saved more than $2 billion by working with the Tokyo government to cut costs by moving some events to existing facilities.

Brisbane is a step closer to committing to a bid for the 2028 summer Olympics after a favourable study into the merit of hosting the Games in Australia’s Queensland state.

A year-long pre-feasibility study said southeastern Queensland had the capability to bid for and host the event and local governments will decide in weeks whether to commission a more exhaustive feasibility study, local media reported.