Japan stadium to cost over $2b, stick with basic design

4.6b ‘Bid 2.0’ unveiled by Boston 2014 Olympics organizers

TOKYO, June 29, (RTRS): Japan’s trouble-plagued new National Stadium, the centrepiece of the 2020 Summer Olympics, will cost more than $2 billion to build, nearly twice the original estimate, and be completed two months later than first thought, officials said on Monday.

The new stadium, which will replace a now-destroyed venue built for the 1964 Summer Games, has been beset by woes including sky rocketing costs, feuding over funding and criticism of the design as too grandiose for its intended site.

Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura told a meeting of Tokyo 2020 organisers that Japan will stick with the basic design put forth by United Kingdom-based architect Zaha Hadid and that construction costs will run to 252 billion yen ($2.1 billion).

Construction will begin in October this year and end in May 2019, Shimomura was quoted by Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto as telling the meeting.

That will be two months later than originally planned but organisers were quoted by Japanese media as saying it will be done in plenty of time for the Rugby World Cup, set to be hosted by Japan in the autumn of 2019.

A retractable roof will not be added until after the Olympics and 15,000 of the stadium’s 80,000 seats will be a much simpler movable design than originally proposed, both additional steps to cut costs.

The stadium came in at 130 billion yen in Tokyo bid documents but cost estimates ballooned to 300 billion yen last year, prompting a modest scaling back of the mum of $4.8 billion, and more likely $5.1 billion, based on domestic sponsorships, ticket sales projected based on previous Olympics and Boston’s share of the IOC TV and sponsorship revenue.

Estimated expenses of $4.6 billion already include contingencies to cover hundreds of millions in cost overruns. Insurance would cover potential increases in the some projects.

The Olympics would leave behind 4,000 housing units in the former athlete’s village, with another 4,000 planned near the temporary, 69,000-seat main stadium.

Olympics-related construction would create 4,100 jobs from 2018-23, with the total “job-years” resulting from the games approaching 100,000.

Tax revenues from the site of the Olympic stadium would rise from a current value of less than $1 million per year to $7 million annually in 2030 and $32 million a decade after that.

Improvements needed for Boston’s oft-maligned public transportation independent of the Summer Games would be sufficient to accommodate the needs of the Olympics.