Toyota Games budget to benefit from fresh reforms

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb 13, (RTRS): The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will benefit from a fresh batch of International Olympic Committee (IOC) reforms, despite having already slashed their initial budget by roughly $2.5 billion, the IOC said on Tuesday.

The Games budget spiralled dangerously out of control a few years after Japan were awarded the event in 2013, forcing major revisions as potential future hosts, already concerned about the massive costs involved, were discouraged.

A set of 118 reforms, named ‘the New Norm’ and approved by the IOC session in Pyeongchang last week, are designed to drive down costs for future Summer Games hosts by around $1 billion.

They would also provide some savings for Tokyo, the IOC’s Coordination Commission for Tokyo head John Coates said, even though all the reforms would only be in place at the 2024 Paris Games awarded to the French capital last September.

“We have got some ideas (on the size of the savings) for Tokyo but we will continue to push,” Coates told reporters when asked how much money Tokyo was set to save from the partial implementation of the reforms.

He did not name a figure or percentage for this amount. Tokyo’s overall budget, after several revisions, now stands at $12.6 billion, of which $5.6 billion are the organising committee’s budget for staging the Games.