Tokyo 2020’s Athletes’ Village has been identified as an area where money could be saved in order to keep Games costs down, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission chair John Coates has claimed as a two-day Project Review visit began in the Japanese capital.
Coates said the “level of service” at the Village could be reduced in order to cut costs amid continued concerns over Tokyo 2020’s budget for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In his opening remarks at the visit, the Australian, a former IOC vice-president who is now an ordinary member of the organisation, revealed they had contacted 28 major National Olympic Committees (NOCs) for feedback on the proposals.
Possible ideas include offering NOCs compensation for having less beds at the Village and “transferable” accreditations, according to Coates.
Recommendations resulting from the responses are set to be discussed at the IOC’s Executive Board meeting in December.
“We are putting a number of questions to those NOCs as to how we think we can find savings by reducing, to an acceptable level, the level of service in the Olympic Village,” Coates said, as reported by Reuters.
“NOCs might receive some financial compensation to give up some beds, they might receive some compensation in return for more transferable accreditations for their support staff, those things.
“We have to be satisfied that there’s no impact on the services for the athletes.”
Coates reaffirmed the need for Tokyo 2020 to ensure their Games budget does not spiral out of control after he warned earlier this year that a failure to do so could scare cities off from bidding for the Olympics and Paralympics.
It comes after organsiers unveiled a budget of between ¥1.6 trillion (£11 billion/$13.6 billion/€13.1 billion) and ¥1.8 trillion (£12.4 billion/$15.3 billion/€14.7 billion) in January.
This included a “contingency budget” of up to ¥309 billion (£2.2 billion/$2.8 billion/€2.5 billion).
A projection by Tokyo 2020 and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government put the expected cost at ¥1.40 trillion (£10 billion/$12.9 billion/€11.4 billion) in July.
“You’ve seen that I am quoted as saying the IOC needs to find savings of $500 million (£377 million/€425 million) for Winter Games and $1 billion (£754 million/€851 million for Summer Games,” Coates was quoted as saying by the Japan Times.
“We want to get to the situation where the Organising Committees for the Games are able to cut even in their budgeting to finance the operational costs of the Games.”
