It’s approaching the 9-month mark since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo Organizing Committee jointly confirmed that the 2020 Olympic Games would be moved a year out to 2021 and the impact of the delay has been growing ever since.
In May of this year, we reported that IOC President Thomas Bach said his committee was ‘preparing to spend up to $800 million for extra costs necessitated by the one-year postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.’
However, as we round the corner to 2021, the price tag for Olympic postponement is now more in the ballpark of $3 billion. The Associated Press noted Tokyo organizers did not dispute this estimate in a statement released Monday, November 30th, but they also did not confirm whether those estimates were correct.
“We are in the process of assessing the additional costs associated with the postponement of the games due to COVID-19 and therefore are not able to comment on any details at this time,” they said. (CBS Sports)
As reported by CBS Sports,
- Per Yomiuri newspaper and Kyodo, an estimated 200 billion yen, or $2 billion USD, is being spent to renegotiate venues leases, pay staff salaries and cover other operational costs.
- NHK and Asahi newspaper noted an additional 100 billion yen, or $1 billion USD, will come from costs of vaccines, rapid tests and various other precautions to combat the spread of coronavirus.
An official government explanation of the costs is expected to be released in December, per the AP.