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The coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Olympics will value no less than 1.64 trillion yen ($15.9 billion), organisers stated Tuesday, unveiling a last price range swollen by the unprecedented postponement and a raft of pandemic measures. The further prices — up 294 billion yen ($2.eight billion) from figures launched a yr in the past — come as officers work to construct enthusiasm for the primary Games postponed in peacetime.
A ballot final week confirmed {that a} majority of Japanese oppose holding the Tokyo Games subsequent yr, favouring an additional delay or outright cancellation of the large occasion, and the newest price range may make the Tokyo Games the costliest Summer Olympics in historical past.
Organisers, who’ve dominated out one other delay and demand the Games might be held subsequent yr, defended the elevated prices.
“Whether you see this budget as expensive or not depends on how you look at it,” stated Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto.
“You can look at it from a cost perspective or an investment perspective. If you look at it purely in terms of cost, it doesn’t make sense. But if you look at it as a positive investment, I think there are areas where it can be identified as such.”
Organisers have tried to reduce parts of the Games in a bid to economize, scrapping athlete welcome ceremonies and scrimping on the all-important “look” of the occasion.
But these financial savings — together with an anticipated 76 billion yen ($735 million) in further income from sponsors and insurance coverage funds — have been outweighed by a plethora of additional prices, from rebooking venues and transport to retaining the massive organising committee workers.
Organisers elevated the service price range of the Games to 731 billion yen ($7.1 billion), with extra cash allotted for the opening and shutting ceremonies, however the International Olympic Committee has agreed to cowl the prices of shifting the marathon and race-walking to northern Sapporo to beat Tokyo’s summer time warmth.
A 96 billion yen ($929 million) price range will cowl virus countermeasures, together with the creation of an an infection management centre within the Olympic Village — a part of a blueprint introduced earlier this month together with plans to commonly check athletes and ban cheering in venues.
– ‘Living with the virus’ –
A examine revealed earlier this yr by Oxford University warned that the Tokyo Games may change into the costliest Summer Olympics ever.
The examine calculated that the 2012 London Games was the costliest to this point, with a $14.96 billion price ticket eclipsed solely by the eye-watering $21.89 billion spent on the Sochi Winter Games in 2014.
“We are trying to hold a global event during a pandemic, and if we are able to do that, it would mean that we can co-exist with Covid-19,” stated Muto.
“We would be able to provide a model for living with the virus, and I think in that sense this event can be a meaningful one.”
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A ballot launched final week by Japanese nationwide broadcaster NHK discovered simply 27 % of respondents assist holding the Games subsequent yr, with 32 % backing cancellation and 31 % favouring an additional postponement.
Still, Tokyo’s governor Yuriko Koike informed AFP final week she will be able to see “no circumstances” beneath which the Games will probably be cancelled, regardless of rising infections in Japan.
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