Due to the postponement and health measures due to Covid-19, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will cost 94 billion yen (2.3 billion euros) more than expected. In total, these Olympics, postponed for a year because of the pandemic, should cost 1,644 billion yen (13 billion euros), the organizers announced Tuesday, December 22. This heavier budget confirms estimates published in early December, when Tokyo 2020 had quantified the additional cost caused by the postponement and the anti-Covid-19 measures.
That would make Tokyo 2020 the most expensive Summer Games in history, ahead of London in 2012 ($ 15 billion, or € 12.2 billion), according to a comparative study by the University of Oxford published in September. All Olympic competitions combined, the Sochi 2014 Winter Games in Russia would keep the absolute record, with their staggering cost estimated at 21.9 billion dollars (17.9 billion euros), according to this study.
This salty addition represents a thorny problem for the Japanese authorities and the organizers, who are trying to rekindle the enthusiasm of the local population for the Games, while the Japanese especially fear that the event will aggravate the pandemic in the country.
“Whether we find this budget expensive or not depends on how we look at it”, assured reporters the general manager of the organizing committee, Toshiro Muto. We can also look at the organization of an event of this magnitude during a pandemic “As a positive investment”, he pleaded.
Authorities rule out cancellations
The organizers tried to lighten the bill by imagining less grandiose Olympics, with a reduction in the number of free tickets and savings on mascots and fireworks. They expect an additional 76 billion yen in income from sponsors and insurance companies.
But the postponement to the summer of 2021 caused a huge logistical and financial headache, with new reservations for places, transport, the extension of the contracts of the staff of the organizing committee and the renegotiation of agreements with the sponsors.
The organizing committee will also reimburse 810,000 tickets purchased in Japan, or nearly a fifth of the seats sold in the country. Logistics costs, including transport, security, communication or marketing expenses, are now amounted to 731 billion yen (5.8 billion euros), a jump of 19% compared to the previous budget, presented to the end of 2019.
An envelope of 96 billion yen (760 million euros) is also planned to finance health measures, such as the establishment of an infection control center in the Olympic village.
As for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it still plans to contribute 85 billion yen (around 673 million euros) to the event. However, he has already given up on taking a percentage of income from sponsors, and has undertaken to pay the additional cost caused by the relocation of the marathon and the walk to Sapporo, in northern Japan, to save participants scorching temperatures.
Tokyo-2020 and local authorities assure that the event can take place in the summer of 2021, even if the pandemic is not under control. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said last week that she did not see “No scenario” which could lead to a cancellation of these Olympics.
