Warning over cost of cancelling Tokyo 2021
CANCELLING the Olympic Games in Tokyo amid the coronavirus pandemic could cost two or three times more than staging the event, the president of the organising committee has warned.
Tokyo 2020 bosses presented a status report on the Games, which have already been delayed by 12 months, to the International Olympic Committee session which was held virtually yesterday, on the same day Lord Coe was elected as a new member of the International Olympic Committee,
despite having previously been barred from joining because of his role as chairman of CSM Sport & Entertainment, a global branding agency which works with a number of sports stars and firms with links to the Olympics.
Enthusiasm for the Games in Japan appears to be waning, with almost 30 per cent of respondents to a recent telephone poll of Tokyo residents calling for the event to be cancelled.
Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori took a dim view of that suggestion and said: “If we cancel
the Games the cost will be two times the current cost that is required. We do not decide on the fate of the Olympic Games considering only the convenience of Japan alone.”
Asked to expand on why costs would increase in the event of cancellation, he said: “Who is going to make the compensation for various reasons? Who is going to pay the money to compensate for the losses? If you follow the common knowledge you would easily come to two times or even three times more [in additional cost].”
IOC president Thomas Bach,
who confirmed he would stand for a second as president at next year’s elections, insisted there is evidence that the Japanese public were still keen for their country to host the Games.
“What for us was a very clear signal of the commitment of the Japanese people was the re-election of governor Koike [in Tokyo] with a vast majority over a big number of candidates,” Bach said. “She was the one who was committed to the Games, while some other candidates expressed their intention to cancel or postpone again.”