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Welcome 2021: The year of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics

19 Comments
By STEPHEN WADE

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There was some brief speculation about dropping the relay, but that faded quickly with Toyota and Coca-Cola the major sponsors.

That is the crux of the issue; the final decisions will come down to money. And the public will be there as the resource to bail out poor decisions by government and business.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

“The fact that you're going to put 10,000-plus athletes, plus all the volunteers, plus all the coaches, plus, plus, plus, plus plus. It doesn't make sense to me," Phelps said. "I just don't see how it can happen. But fingers crossed that everything with vaccines — and everything goes smoothly on that front. But I mean. I don't know. There is just too much unknown.”

A normal response from a decorated and experienced Olympian indicating the sheer scale of the problem and how unrealistic the Tokyo games are.

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed in late March. This seems like a reasonable date by which many firm decisions must be announced.

Most nations won't be vaccinated by then as general public roll out is last

There was some brief speculation about dropping the relay, but that faded quickly with Toyota and Coca-Cola the major sponsors.

Corporation directing the games not people. Profit over people

Dentsu Inc., the giant Japanese ad agency, has lined up a record 68 domestic sponsors for Tokyo. They had already chipped in an astounding $3.3 billion to the local operating budget. That is at least twice — maybe three times — as large as previous Olympics. Last week these companies, many beleaguered by the pandemic, still agreed to chip in at least $200 million more. This will cover a small portion of the cost of delay, which is $2.8 billion. Most costs must be covered by Japanese government entities. The IOC contributes $1.3 billion to fund the games. Everything else is on Japan.

Yes of course Dentsu, known for it's outlandish sense of governance and complete deterioration of the public trust. Clearly the biggest transfer of public wealth to corporations ever, and they're going to cash in. Completely in line with the lining of pockets for themselves, all their friends, and the IOC. An IOC that takes only profits but none of the losses.

This is going to blow up and be the largest scandal in Japan's history. Everyone will bow and it'll go away as no politician will bite the hand that feeds them. Meanwhile the average Japanese will have been completely cheated out of billions from the public purse. Taxes will go up to compensate

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Dagon

i can assure you that the majority of the 14 global sponsors will not be decisive in holding or not holding the games. They will have an influence but i would say that at this point they would be supportive if a decision to cancel would be made. They will not go against public sentiment, for the good reason that would be counter productive. They have some of the best global sports marketing experts in their ranks. No reason to vilify them. The IOC must take the decision and that decision must be cancellation. We will find out soon if all those nice slogans and words have any content or are just talk. I think they will cancel but only because mid to long term that is the least harmful to them, not because its the right thing. Sadly.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Welcome 2021: The year of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Let me fix that headline...

Welcome 2021: The year when the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be cancelled due to the government losing control of the covid pandemic

8 ( +13 / -5 )

Its de ja vu all over again.

Remember back in February and March when the government was dragging its feet about doing anything serious to tackle the pandemic even as it got harder and harder to ignore? And how plainly obvious it was that the reason for this was the Olympics coming up which they were steadfastly determined would go ahead as planned, no matter what?

Yeah, now we get to do that allover again,only this time while dealing with a much bigger outbreak.

Can’t wait for the announcement about Suganomasks as a solution to all of this to come out.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

The world needs the Olympics. Bring them on.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

I doubt if there's 2021 Olympic!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

More like... 2021... Olympic games won't happen. Let's be real for a sec shall we.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

John BearaToday  11:05 am JST

More like... 2021... Olympic games won't happen. Let's be real for a sec shall we.

It may take all year to get 8 billion Earthlings vaccinated. Then the Olympics can be held in 2022 instead, wait-a-minute! Why not hold the summer and winter games during the same year again, which is how it was done until until 1994?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

If only the government had acted faster on the roll out of a Vaccine like the US and the UK then holding the Olympics might have been possible but as they haven't then its time to cancel them.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Olympics are kind of an outdated thing anyway. I'd be happy if they just disappeared altogether.

Maybe corona helped in that sense.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

I have not seen any program on Japanese TV discussing we should hold the Olympics in 2021 or not despite it is an immediate problem for Japan. The reason is clear. Japanese TV companies depend greatly on Dentsu for commercials and advertisement they put on their screens. Dentsu arranges and produces advertisement from Japanese companies and provide for TV companies.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

it is not possible as teams won’t be ready in time due to present lockdowns...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Olympics are kind of an outdated thing anyway. I'd be happy if they just disappeared altogether.

Maybe corona helped in that sense.

Agreed, let's hope so. They meant something when it was purely for amateurs. Juan Antonio Samarach turned it into cash cow for the IOC only. It's no longer about 'competing', but all about winning.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Every Olympics should’ve been pushed back 4 years, which means holding the Tokyo Olympics in 2024

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What's going to funny is, and I said this before, when it's clear the 2021 Olympics will have to be cancelled, the JOC will say they simply want to postpone it again -- after declaring, as an ultimatum, that it could not be postponed again. Just watch...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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