Organizers of Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Olympics yesterday unveiled a “significant” cut in their budget for hosting the games, as the city comes under pressure to keep a lid on spiraling costs.
The overall games budget now stands at ¥1.35 trillion (US$11.9 billion), organizers said.
This represented a cut of US$1.4 billion compared with the previous version of the budget unveiled in December last year and US$300 million compared with an interim figure agreed in May.
Photo: Reuters
“Going forward, Tokyo 2020 will continue to seek further cost reductions, particularly in the areas of event operations, transport, accommodation and security,” organizers said in a statement.
They hailed a “significant reduction in costs” resulting from “sustained efforts ... to avoid recourse to public funds.”
“This will not be the end of the cost reduction efforts,” Tokyo 2020 organizing committee chief financial officer Hidemasa Nakamura said at a news conference.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Games coordination commission chairman John Coates in October said Tokyo should aim to cut overall costs by US$1 billion from the interim figure.
“We hope to draft [budget] plans so that Coates will say ‘good job’ at the end,” Nakamura said.
The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee is to cover US$5.6 billion of the costs, with the Tokyo city authorities and the Japanese government stumping up a further US$7 billion between them.
The US$5.6 billion organizing committee budget is covered by ticket sales, licensing and sponsorship, and the statement hailed an increase of US$900 million in sponsorship revenue.
However, Tokyo 2020 admitted it still needed to find $200 million in “expected additional revenue” to balance the books and vowed it would “continue to look at ways” to secure the extra funding.
Tokyo organizers are under pressure to keep costs down, with the International Olympic Committee worried that ballooning price tags for hosting the games would deter cities from bidding for the event.
The rollout of the centerpiece stadium turned into a fiasco when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tore up the blueprints amid public anger over its price tag.
Last year, an expert panel warned the total costs could exceed an eye-watering US$25 billion.
In its bid, Tokyo estimated the bill for the Games would be about US$7 billion.
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