IOC chief Bach floats possibility of no fans at Tokyo Games

By July, no one will be talking about Covid except the perpetual hypochondriacs.

Open your eyes.

The Olympics cannot go ahead. The virus will not be gone by July.

Hold the games without foreign fans.

It simply cannot be held. It affects all of us. Not just foreigners.

starpunkToday  04:46 am JST

They've put too much into it yet the virus makes it too risky right now and the athletes are not at their best. Delay the games until next year.

They can't or would find it extremely difficult to do so. Most sports are on a 4 year cycle that culminates with the Olympics being the pinnacle event. This includes funding, sponsorship of athletes and the normal cycle of identifying new talend and old stars retiring from the given sport.

Delaying it by one year has been a heck of a stretch, with many older athletes deciding not to continue onto the delayed date citing age, injury or lack of motivation. This in turn has had the knock on effect of requiring a grand reshuffle of the order which athletes have qualified for a given event. Postponing it by another year would completely throw this out, as many sportspeople are unable to travel to new or rescheduled requalifiing events.

I don't understand why it matters when it is held. It's a simple scheduling issue. The players, the venue, the courts, and the fans aren't going away from Earth.

Agreed, the world will still be here in 2032 when Japan can re-apply. Between now and 2032, the good people of Tokyo can enjoy their new stadiums, and updated infrastructure, (when the pandemic is brought under control, of course). It's been a public investment.

It also gives Japan time to instigate other reforms which Japan so desperatly needs.

I think that from time to time in our lives we say, "there's more to life than money".

They've put too much into it yet the virus makes it too risky right now and the athletes are not at their best. Delay the games until next year.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who previously said spectator numbers could be reduced to a "reasonable" level at the Tokyo Games, has touched on the possibility of not having spectators at all.

Three problems. With an average Olympics requiring local 80,000+ volunteers to operate, they will struggle to find anywhere near those numbers. With 80% of Japanese thinking the games should be postposed or cancelled, the locals won't be coming forward in any great numbers.

Secondly, as seen with the Go To tourism farce, the last thing you want to be doing is encouraging any kind of mobility within the country. Vaccines are on the horizons, but they won't be available in any meaningful numbers before the Olympics are slated to begin.

Thirdly. No tourists, no revenue. Japan has just sunk billions into new infrastracture for this even and will now want payback. They will receive some from the sponsors if it goes ahead, but many of those will pull out of the event is scaled back. Japan will most likely try and secure the 2032 games as compensation. These have not been allocated yet.

The only thing that the IOC President Bash is interested in is coming down to Tokyo for the games, staying at luxurious hotels like Ritz Carlton, wining and dining like kings then fill his pocket in whatever way he can before saying ‘ Sayonara ‘... the purpose of having the Olympic has been changed in a terrible way!

Hahaha.... and only earlier this week they were talking about having spectators and what said people could do. Tsk tsk... the truth slowly but surely dawns on them all.

The whole of the Olympics for Japan was tourism, but they don't want foreigners coming with their virus, so no point hosting it.

Lives are more important than show.

I resigned my volunteer post for the sailing part of the Olympics.

@zoroto

Who watches (in person or on TV) is completely irrelevant. The advertisers and sponsors paying is the only thing that matters.

No audience, no advertisers.

How about this idiot Bach wakes up to NO G A M E S , its already floated .

Next olympric games cycle is tokyo 2024 then the games continue on if there is a demand but so far seems not so much !

Bach needs to step Back.

Bach should let his grandchildren stay in Tokyo during the Games if he thinks there is no reason to cancel it.

No spectators would be ok. Since the days of TV being widespread, The Olympics has been a TV event for 99% of people watching the Games. But of course there is a Plan B......it's called canceling the Olympics.

The people of japan have spend the Crown Jewels on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Billions of dollars.

For International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, a rather insignificant innocuous irrelevance to float possibility of no fans at Tokyo Games.

Time to draw a line under or though, the presumptuous protestations of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

This Pandemic has ended any pretense of economic liability.

This two/three week orgy of sporting financial extreme folly and lunacy must come to an end.

I don't understand why it matters when it is held. It's a simple scheduling issue. The players, the venue, the courts, and the fans aren't going away from Earth.

Could be a case of Japan winning every gold medal.

The athletes canceled once already when they were oblivious the first time, what makes them think anything has changed the second time?

No athletes, no volunteers, no service. Japan's Decision-making is broken

Since it's all about tv and the IOC getting their cut, they couldn't give 2 hoots whether anyone turn up to saviour the 'Olympic Spirit'.

Hold the games without foreign fans. Cancelling the games will not be good for the economy and future tourism.

By July, no one will be talking about Covid except the perpetual hypochondriacs.

IOC chief Bach floats possibility of no fans at Tokyo Games

Going to be a bit hot, then. Without fans, they'll probably have to use air conditioning and drink a lot of beer!

I will escape to Hokkaido anyway. Just not safe with people coming from everywhere in the world with their mutated strains of coronavirus.

This nonsense is holding back the effort to vaccinate the people. I don't care about any of these athletes. I do care about getting through this pandemic and getting our lives back. As it stands, the government vaccination strategy is very vague, with a proposed timeline from next month to the end of May for the entire population to "cured". That seems far-fetched and more a blanket statement to give the athletes it before the rest of us, while some of us wonder why there is no supply for regular people.

Ga-man ... ugh. Cancel this joke already and let's save the country.

In the end, they will just light the olympic flame and perform a minute of silence for JGOV.

@Kumagaijin

Why not try to do what the UFC does

Absolutely...tonight is the Mcgregor vs Porier fight.

2000 spectators are allowed to join.

Why not try to do what the UFC does and let "socially distanced" fans attend? Or, vaccinate 5000+ people and have them attend the events as "professional fans" that cheer on the athletes. I'd volunteer. Or, just cancel the games altogether. Starting to look like Beijing 2022 will be cancelled or postponed.

Why not just make it a virtual Olympics with people competing over Zoom?

If the games are held behind closed doors, your don't get the massive cash infection of all of the ticket sales. You also don't get the huge tourism boost.

Financially it would make sense to postpone for another year.

From Google search:

The IOC is the owner of the global broadcast rights for the Olympic Games – including broadcasts on television, radio, mobile and internet platforms – and is responsible for allocating Olympic broadcast rights to media companies throughout the world through the negotiation of rights agreements.

No game means no money from those media company to IOC. IOC does not care if there is no tourist, no spectator or even less countries or top athletes participating. It will push ahead no matter what to have something to get their broadcasting fee.

"We have at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on the 23rd of July in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo. This is why there is no plan B and this is why we are fully committed to make these games safe and successful," he told Kyodo News.

The virus says.....’no!’

I don't think so. I think most volunteers want what most people want, this pandemic to be over and getting back to some normality. What I think is... no, actually what I’m sure is that most people, include those who volunteered to practice their English or whatever, would happily sacrifice the the Olympics to achieve that goal.

Wait a sec, I’m on your side. Just saying that the cancellation is a very sad thing for these people and even for the world.

I guess if their is no fans then the superspreaders will be narrowed to participants..But that does nothing anyway...Watch the J Govt lie about positive results so they can show the world "we beat the virus over the head with the Olympic torch". Only to be the next UK with COVID numbers 14 days after the Olympics.

"We have no plan B"

"We are working to prepare for all the potential scenarios"

Olympics is a news only in Japan.

It will end as the Japan National Championship

The pandemic is a great opportunity to rethink the Olympics.

Dentsu and other media could fool the Japanese citizenry into mortgaging their and their children's future for a 2 week party, but informed locals in other countries are waking up to bankruptcy that is the Olympics and rejecting proposals to host.

This time, whatever, but going forward, why not just choose the place with the best facilities for that particular sport and have competing athletes gather there. So there could be multiple hosting cities each time and there wouldn't be a need for the corruption, wasted money, exploitation, dwelling removals and deaths for building the facilities, often soon abandoned. Or the need for all the security. Most of us only watch on TV, so do we really care where it is taking place?

I feel for the volunteers.

80% of Japan's population is against holding the Olympics this year.

Do you think the majority of volunteers are for it, at this point?

You’re mixing things up. What I think is... no, actually what I’m sure is, that every single one of those volunteers is incredibly sad. The dream is slowly fading away. It looks like you want people to be happy about the games being canceled.

Different things.

If the games are held behind closed doors, your don't get the massive cash infection of all of the ticket sales. You also don't get the huge tourism boost.

Financially it would make sense to postpone for another year.

The IOC is sure persistent in ensuring their coffers get filled this year, huh?

TokyoJoeToday  04:24 pm JST

Next week's headline :

IOC chief Bach floats possibility of no athletes at Tokyo Games

Week after next's headline:

IOC chief Bach floats possibility of no Tokyo Games.

It's obvious. Televised games if they must.

Now the only remaining issue is how to hold the games without prioritizing selfish athletes for vaccines.

I would suggest suspending the Games until 2024.

Bach needs to shut up. No spectators, prioritising athletes for vaccines, pie in the sky Covid ‘rules’ blah blah blah..... It’s all nonsense. I heard a GB athlete speaking on BBC radio yesterday and she said the Olympics are pointless without spectators.

Considering many of the athletes haven't been able to train, you might as well add in "no athletes" as well. Who's going to want to watch this watered down Olympics?

If these games go ahead, they will forever go down as the worst games in history. History could look back and show that Japan was unlucky for having to cancel the games, or it could look back and show how foolish Japan was for going ahead despite a global pandemic. J-gov, IOC, over to you, how do you want these games to be remebered?

Next week's headline : 

IOC chief Bach floats possibility of no athletes at Tokyo Games

Exactly. These people wanna keep delaying the inevitable. You can’t run away from reality. But it’s definitely sad and hard to accept, after all that money and hard work from thousands of people. I feel for the volunteers.

Next week's headline :

IOC chief Bach floats possibility of no athletes at Tokyo Games

Could be reduced to an even lower level: after no public, no fans we will end up to no games as the safest way to have Olympic Games without worry !

even lower level: no athletes, no games. sad, but inevitable.

Olympics?

Why are we still talking about something that will never happen.

If they are gonna insist on still holding this thing, to be safe, just let the athletes stay home and compete on Zoom. Or perhaps fax in their results to the IOC.

“...floats possibility of no fans at Tokyo Games “ ...

I already knew that weeks ago...

we already know what you’re gonna say before you even start thinking about saying it... funny huh... wait until he starts talking about the athletes...