Olympic chiefs bracing for extra costs in rescheduling Tokyo Games

According to the latest budget, the Games were due to cost USD 12.6 billion.

Christophe Dubi: “It is tens of thousands of lines of budget that need to be reviewed.”

Olympic chiefs said on Thursday they were bracing themselves for the extra costs incurred by rescheduling the Tokyo Games by a year to 2021. The historic decision to postpone the summer Olympics by 12 months was taken this week amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It was the first peacetime postponement of the Games.

According to the latest budget, the Games were due to cost USD 12.6 billion, shared between the organising committee, the government of Japan and Tokyo city. The postponement affects every aspect of the organisation - the Olympic Athletes’ Village, hotels, ticketing, venues and transport being among the major headaches.

“What is being recognised is that there will be additional costs on one side for the Tokyo organising committee and there will be additional costs for the IOC and Olympic family,” Christophe Dubi, the Olympic Games executive director, said in a conference call.

“We are looking into those with great detail. It is tens of thousands of lines of budget that need to be reviewed.”

‘Fantastic campaign’

The Tokyo organising committee, Dubi said, “had a fantastic campaign in term of marketing, ticketing, hospitality.”

“Tokyo 2020 was in a great financial position prior to the crisis. It is truly helpful because the revenues are incredibly high, that’s something we can rely on.”

Dubi said it was “reassuring” that the IOC and Japanese officials had a set date for the rescheduled Games in 2021. “It’s very good because we have a date. For us, it means we have some certainty,” he said.