Experts foresee Tokyo Games without spectators if virus lingers

And athletes, seems if you step onto a plane or boat you catch it.

I foresee one without athletes.

Will they refund everybody’s tickets? Or, will they keep the cash like they did to the Tokyo marathon runners?

I foresee Koike, Mori and Abe competing against each other in empty stadiums.

Seriously though, the athletes are human, too. Do you really think they are going to come to Japan, given the way things are unfolding?

They keep making these articles without money stat predictions. I want to know how much money is spent and lost in having the Games without spectators and/or delaying the Games a year. I don't get the hesitation to delay.

Half the US team will be virus infected by then even as will all the European teams

Just cancel it!

the whole point of the Olympics was for the profit motive. Holding them without the spectators is like ordering a Nomihodai and just ordering one coke.

The smartest thing to do would be to postpone them. if they insist on holding them in 2020, they risk either not having specators or having spectators and then having a HUGE spike in the virus.

This article is out of date already. The torch relay in Greece was canceled on Friday.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200314/p2g/00m/0na/004000c

How much longer can the powers-that-be pretend the games will go ahead?

Prof Munehiko Harada, I am sorry to say that you are a self proclaimed shoebox expert and what you suggest is ridiculous. The games without spectators ?  What about the athletes health ?  the volunteers ? Staff ? Officials ? tv crews and journalists ?

What about the commercial benefits if no one comes to stay in hotels, goes to restaurants, do not buy merchandise ? Airlines ? 

Sir, I am a real expert. I worked on the Olympics starting with Nagano. I represent gold medalists, world recordholders, I organized F1 races and track and field events, and i work with global Olympic sponsors as well as with local sponsors. Your suggestion is that of a man disconnected from reality. 

The only, and very realistic and viable solution, which even brings a lot of advantages, is to postpone the games to 2021. That will be done also with the European football championships planned for June this year. 

I pity your students if they have to listen to you proclaiming so much nonsense.

They’re in the usual state of cultural denial unfortunately. Simply cant deal with reality fast enough, especially curve ball black swan reality and the only instinct is to stay on track no matter what the grim situation is revealing to them. They’re bureaucrats remember. It’s sad, yep its gunna hurt, no one wants to cancel it but the games just aint gunna happen. No one wanted the virus but its here, its real and its gunna hit hard real quick. Exponential function.

Give the world one year to fight the pandemic and do it in 2021. The sky wont fall down, it can be done.

They are trying to save those $28 billion at all costs even if it costs people's lives.

They are very aware that mass public events right now should be forbidden, but they want to save the investment not the people.

Meanwhile US is releasing $50 billion to fight infections, the Federal Reserve is injecting $1,5 trillion dollars trying to save the stock market right now in panic because if this virus and Japan think these $28 billion are too much to let until the day they figure out a much more expensive bill is coming for neglecting the risk mass public events represent.

@Tora look, it’s still too early to determine whether or not the games will still be canceled. Worst case scenario, the Olympics would have to be held without spectators. But that’s as far as it’s going to go, considering all the billions of dollars worth of yen that was sunk in to the games and all.

And it may only be some of the events, if any, considering the fact that there’s still 4+ months left until the games themselves will be held. And besides, the article says that they have till May or June to decide. And with what’s going on in China right now, with the epicenter (Wuhan) already reopening factories and such, I predict that it will be contained enough as to make cancellation of the games completely unnecessary.

Thinking these 'experts' didn't consult with the athletes?

The world would be much better if we didn’t have these “experts”

What if Japan spent all that money on Fukushima cleanup instead? Hindsight is 20/20 I know but isn't that why we elect very capable and talented people in the top post who can see better than the rest of us?

It won't happen in empty stadiums, because it will be postponed.

The only way the government has to recoup some of the enormous amount of money they have spent on preparing for the games is to get spectators in the country, spending tourist dollars, and putting bums on seats.

It won't happen in empty stadiums, because it will be postponed

Give it a rest already. It's not up to japan. The contract they signed with IOC calls for cancellation. Postponement is simply wishful thinking.

More straw grasping. There will not be any athletes or officials coming, many volunteers would be down with the virus, essential services will be overwhelmed.

Thinking eliminating contact sports will stop the spread of the virus is astonishing in it's stupidity. The Athletes Village will be a huge cluster are for the virus, whatever the sport.

"There is no canceling an investment of 3 trillion yen (about $28 billion).

The vast majority of that money, probably all of it due to unreported overspends, will have already gone on construction and consultancies and training and ....

Even if they were held, the Games themselves would not recoup very much of that sum. There is the further problem is that there is no sustainable demand for many of the facilities. There are many high-profile examples of Olympics stadia around the world that have fallen into ruin within a year or two for this very reason.

Since the money has already been spent, it is nonsensical to talk of the "investment" being "cancelled". It insults the intelligence of the public.

They can only hope the summer heat kills off the virus as it did with SARS.

Watching the media and gov elite when they won the olympic bid, their over reaction was almost hysterical, fanatical, like they were banking on something. Perhaps it was a recovery from the Fukushima embarrassment and disaster, perhaps a revival of national identity, and how the world views them. Ive noticed this about Japanese; that is to hide the obvious and go hard towards unrealistic goals, just for the sake of how others see them.

I agree with previous poster Luddite -- the Athletes Village potential cluster coronowirus propagation area might as well be bulldozed now; availability of prophylactic 'Japanese skins' or no prophylactic 'Japanese skins' availability notwithstanding...

The problem is that it may be peaking in July in many countries, even if it has subsided in Japan by then. Japan would be basically inviting the virus back in. Why would they do that? Just beg the IOC to postpone it.