International Olympic Committee (IOC) member John Coates, who is in charge of planning for next year’s Tokyo Olympics, has said that the postponed Games could help “kickstart” Japan’s economy.
Japan has been devastated like many countries by the COVID-19 pandemic and could be in a recession when the Olympics are to open on July 23 next year.
“These Games are a very positive opportunity for an economic stimulus,” Coates said in a teleconference on Thursday with the Tokyo organizing committee. “These Games can help kickstart the economy again. These Games could be the rebirth of the tourism industry.”
Photo: AFP
Coates also praised Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, calling him a “very, very smart man.”
He said that Abe also viewed the Games as providing an economic stimulus.
However, economists and Olympic researchers yesterday said that any economic boost would be negligible given the size of Japan’s US$5 trillion economy and the limited tourism and economic benefits from the 17-day Games.
In some previous Olympics, soaring prices and crowding have discouraged tourists instead of attracting them.
“His predictions fly in the face of all the research on the financial impacts of hosting the Games ‘on a good day’ — and the current global crisis does not qualify as ‘a good day,’” said Helen Lenskyj, a professor emerita at the University of Toronto.
Lenskyj has written eight books on the Olympics, including her most recent, The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach. She suggested that Japan would be better off if it did not have to finance next year’s Games.
“At this moment in history, ‘a very smart man’ would be wishing his country did not have the added burden of hosting the Olympics,” Lenskyj said.
Japan is officially spending US$12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a government audit report in December last year said that it was twice that much. All but US$5.6 billion is taxpayer money.
IOC and Japanese officials say they do not know the cost of the one-year delay, but estimates have put it at US$2 billion to US$6 billion. Nearly all of the added costs fall to Japan under an agreement signed in 2013 when Tokyo was awarded the Games.
Coates confirmed that the IOC would be spending “several hundred million dollars” because of the postponement.
The funds would go to distressed international federations and national Olympic committees, not to Tokyo.
Tokyo organizing committee chief executive officer Toshiro Muto has described the added costs as “massive,” while Coates said that “there will be some negative impacts.”
“If Tokyo is hoping that a surge of tourism is going to cover the costs of moving the Games by a year, they are likely to be very disappointed,” said Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross.
Matheson and colleague Robert Baumann calculated the impact of foreign tourism on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. They discounted local spending, as it was simply moving expenditures from one place in the country to another.
They said that Rio had 60,000 added arrivals and estimated US$5,000 spending by each arrival, an impact of US$300 million.
Rio spent about US$13 billion to organize the Olympics and some put the figure at US$20 billion.
Matheson and Robert Baade of Lake Forest College published a study in 2016 titled Going for Gold: The Economics of the Olympics. They looked at the impact of short-term and long-term tourism, sports and other infrastructure, employment, trade, and the intangible “feel-good factor”of holding the Olympics.
They concluded: “In most cases, the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities; they result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances.”
The IOC and Japanese organizers on Thursday promised to cut out frills to rein in spending. They are still trying to nail down if all of the 43 Olympic and Paralympic venues will be available next year and at what cost.
“On the Japanese side, they are assessing the impact of the postponement including costs,” Coates said. “These are not matters that are going to happen quickly. I couldn’t put a finger on when the additional costs will be assessed and done.”
Taiwan’s men’s A team last night defeated their counterpart B team 82-77 in their first showdown in the William Jones Cup at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Gymnasium. With four wins under their belt, Taiwan’s A squad — also known as the blue team, consisting of the national team’s main roster — lead the tournament, while Malaysia and the Philippines Strong Group-Pilipinas, who were not scheduled to play last night, are both undefeated with three wins each. Taiwanese-American teenager Robert Hinton, playing in his first William Jones Cup, led the scoring early in the first quarter, putting up nine points for the A
A chance encounter during a drunken night out was the unlikely catalyst for breaker Sunny Choi’s journey to the Paris Olympic Games. The 35-year-old American is to showcase her skills before a global audience in Paris when breaking makes its debut on the Olympic stage. Choi is the beneficiary of efforts to attract younger fans to the Olympics, a move that led to breaking’s inclusion for the first time. However, as Choi says, the Olympics was the last thing on her mind when she took up the sport. A freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Choi stumbled into breaking
Teenage gymnast Shoko Miyata has been pulled from Japan’s team for the Paris Olympics after being caught smoking and drinking, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old, a world bronze medalist and captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team for the Games, was sent home from their training camp in Monaco and admitted she had violated the squad’s code of conduct. “With her confirmation and after discussions on all sides, it has been decided that she will withdraw from the Olympics,” Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) secretary-general Kenji Nishimura told reporters in Tokyo. Nishimura said the association had been told that Miyata was seen smoking in a
Former NFL receiver Jacoby Jones, whose 108-yard kickoff return in 2013 remains the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history, has died at the age of 40. The Houston Texans, Jones’ team for the first five seasons of his career, announced his death on Sunday. In a statement released by the NFL Players Association, his family said he died at his home in New Orleans. A cause of death was not given. Jones played from 2007 to 2015 for the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers, and he made several huge plays for the Ravens during their most recent Super