The Washington Post - 18.03.2020

D4 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020

and the To kyo 2020 committee

don’t own all of these facilities,

typically leasing them for a specif-

ic use and time period. Some have

other tenants and plans lined up

beyond the Games.

The olympics media operation

will be headquartered at the To -

kyo Big Sight, which serves as the

city’s major convention space. De-

laying the Games means an im-

portant To kyo facility would be

unavailable indefinitely. The city-

owned venue normally hosts 300

exhibitions every year.

At the conclusion of the Games,

the olympic Village is expected to

be converted into more than

5, 600 condominiums, housing

12,000 p eople. real estate compa-

nies have listed 940 units for sale

thus far and have received more

than 2,200 applications, with

some apartments already sold,

said mika Kiyomoto, spokeswom-

an for mitsui fudosan, one of 10

developers of the project.

Asked what options buyers

who have purchased a property

would have in case of a postpone-

ment or cancellation of the

Games, Kiyomoto declined to

comment, citing the confidential-

ity of individual contracts.

The To kyo organizing commit-

tee also long ago blocked out

45,000 hotel rooms for this sum-

mer and might have to scramble

to secure similar accommoda-

tions for another date. There’s

also the matter of all the equip-

ment required to stage an olym-

pics, enough to build an entire

makeshift town all its own.

“A lot of the Games is a rental,”

the veteran sports executive said.

“You rent it for a period of time

that is going on someplace else.”

This includes tents, trailers,

generators, buses and many other

high-priced items that are sup-

posed to be packaged and shipped

elsewhere in August.

There’s also the matter of per-

sonnel. The Japanese will rely on

some 80,000 volunteers to help

stage these olympics, people who

put their jobs on hold and long

ago made plans to be available

this summer. Similarly, thou-

sands more have been hired or

transferred from local govern-

ments to help stage the olympics,

a budgeted expense that’s sup-

posed to expire following the con-

clusion of the Summer Games.

As f or the athletes who train for

years to peak over a specific three-

week period in the summer, any

postponement would prompt ma-

jor adjustments. Hula, a veteran

insurer that you did everything

possible to make sure those

Games were to happen.”

Speaking at an investor confer-

ence this month, Brian roberts,

the chairman and chief executive

of Comcast, NBC’s parent compa-

ny, said: “We anticipate these

kinds of things in big contract

language. We try to anticipate for

big events what might happen so

that we’re protected there, and we

also have insurance for any ex-

penses we make. So there should

be no losses should there not be

an olympics.”

feelings might continue to be

mixed in some corners until a

decision is ultimately made. mu-

nehiko Harada, a professor of

sports sciences at Waseda Univer-

sity, said: “If we postpone the

olympics or abandon the olym-

pic Games we lose so many things,

unbelievably many things, in-

cl uding money, effort, jobs. The

show must go on.

“Everything is on schedule; it’s

impossible to stop at this stage."

postponement: complicated

The most likely scenario also

might be the most challenging:

Postponing the Games for any

amount of time will be costly and

complicated.

Staging an olympics is a mam-

moth undertaking. These Sum-

mer Games were expected to car-

ry a price tag of $12.6 billion —

though the Board of Audit, a body

established to review government

expenditures, estimated Japan

actually would spend more than

$25 billion related to the Games.

The olympics encompasses 33

competition venues, 11 of them

built for these Games. The IoC

around $1 billion in ticket sales if

spectators were banned.

cancellation: A waste

In 2 013, the city of To kyo signed

an 81-page “Host City Contract”

with the IoC and the Japanese

olympic Committee. The con-

tract a llows the IoC to cancel for a

variety of reasons, including war,

boycotts or if “the safety o f partici-

pants in the Games would be

seriously threatened or jeopar-

dized for any reason whatsoever.”

According to the contract, the

IoC is required to give at least 60

days’ notice to cancel, and Japan’s

olympics minister, Seiko

Hashimoto, told lawmakers in

early march the contract gave

Japanese organizers leeway to

postpone the To kyo Games but

only if they were held by the end

of 2020. Anything beyond that

probably would require a new or

amended “Host City Contract.”

one veteran sports executive

who has worked on planning sev-

eral olympics said much of the

public posturing right now could

be related to that contract and all

of the insurance implications.

“The game that’s being played

out in To kyo — both on the IoC

side and on the To kyo side — is

who’s g oing to blink first,” s aid the

executive, who still works in

many corners of the sprawling

olympics universe and requested

anonymity to speak candidly.

“This is a game of chicken. It’s a

game of chicken because they

each probably have different in-

surers, and Games cancellation

insurers, you’ve never really had

to pull that rip cord. And in order

to pull that rip cord, you’ve got to

be able to demonstrate to your

associated with the Games will be

a priority and, like much of the

world, Japan has been going to

great lengths to slow the spread of

the virus.

Neal Pilson, who helped nego-

tiate broadcast rights for three

olympic Games while he was the

head of CBS Sports, said the possi-

bility of staging the To kyo Games

without fans or spectators might

no longer be viable.

“I think the recent decisions by

the NBA, hockey, the NCAA has

put an end of that as an option,” h e

said. “You say, ‘All right, we won’t

risk audience, but we will risk the

athletes.’ You can’t say we’ll play

without an attendance because

we don’t want to risk the fans,

without saying it’s okay to risk

40-50,000 athletes and techni-

cians and staff. S o that’s not going

to happen. That option is off the

table.”

There have been more than

1,500 infections so far in Japan,

and most schools were shuttered

this month in hopes of stopping

the spread. Hideomi Nakahara, a

visiting professor at the Yamano

College of Aesthetics specializing

in infectious diseases, said even if

the virus seems contained in Ja-

pan by may, there are still chal-

lenges to staging an olympics less

than three months later.

“This is not a domestic event,”

Nakahara said. “A thletes from

around the world have got to be

able to participate. This is a condi-

tion that’s got to be absolutely

met.... If the contagion was

spreading in just one country or

two, that might make it feasible.

But that’s not the case given what

we are seeing today.”

Japan has been banking on a

tourist boom to breathe life into

its economy, and as many as 2

million visitors were expected for

the Games alone. Hotels have in-

vested in renovations and are

heavily booked, Japan Airlines

had been expected to launch a

low-cost subsidiary, Zipair To kyo,

at a cost of around $200 million in

may, and To kyo’s Narita and

Haneda airports have invested

heavily to boost capacity.

Among spectators, enthusiasm

has been without precedent. Ja-

pan has sold 4.48 million tickets

for the olympics (not including

the Paralympics) to residents of

Japan after receiving 80 million

requests for tickets from 8.2 mil-

lion people. That leaves a lot of

disappointed taxpayers and vot-

ers, and SmBC Nikko Securities

estimated Japan would lose

of 12 olympic Games, points out

that a September or october

olympics also would look and feel

much different from a midsum-

mer showcase. Cooler weather

might be an advantage for specta-

tors and some outdoor sports, but

other sports might have a difficult

time staging their events. Surfing,

for example, as well as golf, ten-

nis, baseball, softball and basket-

ball would have to grapple with

less-than-ideal conditions or ma-

jor scheduling conflicts.

“You’ve got 33 sports to deal

with in To kyo,” Hula said.

“They’re all going to have to make

adjustments, see who fits and

who doesn’t.”

The power of television

While the To kyo 2020 organiz-

ing committee could decide the

olympics shouldn’t take place as

scheduled, the IoC has the ulti-

mate call on whether to postpone

or cancel. It s urely will have heavy

input from some partners, partic-

ularly NBC. The IoC, a nonprofit

organization, brought in more

than $5 billion during the most

recent four-year olympic cycle,

nearly three-quarters of which

came from broadcast rights. NBC

contributes about half of that, and

thus carries a lot of sway.

Postponing by a few months is

not an ideal scenario for the net-

work, which has other program-

ming lined up for the fall and

wouldn’t be eager to fill the giant

hole left o n the summer schedule.

“That puts the olympic Games

in direct conflict with NfL,” Pil-

son said. “NBC has a serious com-

mitment to the NfL on Sunday

nights and you have college foot-

ball on Saturdays, so you’re not

going to get the type of ratings

that you get during the summer.

And it really changes the econom-

ics of the deal.

NBC said this month it has sold

nearly 90 percent of its advertis-

ing inventory, totaling a record

$1.25 billion. Pilson explained

that, in the event of a postpone-

ment, the ad rates NBC sold for

the To kyo Games would not be

applicable, and its agreements

with the IoC and its advertisers

would have to be renegotiated.

“That’s not what they bought,”

Pilson said, “so you can’t simply

flip the advertisers into a differ-

ent time of year and not negotiate

adjustments with them.”

A spokesman for NBC said

monday, “The safety of our em-

ployees is always our top priority,

but there is no impact on our

preparations at this time.”

While postponing the Games a

full year could alter international

schedules and olympic qualify-

ing, it also would stretch some

IoC resources, as they would be

just a year out from the Beijing

Winter olympics in 2022. And

postponing the To kyo Games two

full years would see the Summer

olympics in the same cycle as the

Winter Games, which is how the

olympics were held until 1994.

“The IoC’s decision will not be

determined by financial interests,

because thanks to its risk man-

agement policies and insurance,

it will in any case be able to

continue its operations and ac-

complish its mission to organize

the olympic Games,” the IoC said

in its Tuesday statement.

Even if the IoC is weeks from

any public announcements about

a possible postponement or can-

cellation, sorting through the lo-

gistics will require difficult con-

versations for all the stakehold-

ers, prioritizing health and safety

while wrestling with the realities

of economics and scheduling.

“There’s nothing good here,”

Pilson said. “You’re talking about

a series of bad choices. Which is

the least bad?”

[email protected]

[email protected]

denyer reported from tokyo. Akiko

Kashiwagi contributed to this report.

ment later in the day, saying the
pandemic was “an unprecedent-
ed situation for the whole world”
but “there is no need for any
drastic decisions at t his stage; and
any speculation at this moment
would be counterproductive.”
Prime minister Shinzo Abe has
said the To kyo Games will pro-
ceed as scheduled, and he has no
immediate plans to declare a state
of emergency. But many in Japan
have their doubts. A poll released
monday by Kyodo News found
that seven in 10 people there do
not expect the olympics to take
place this summer as planned.
on Tuesday, Kozo Ta shima,
deputy chief of the Japan olympic
Committee and head of the Japan
football Association, said in a
statement that he had tested posi-
tive for the coronavirus. Ta shima
had been traveling for business
since feb. 28, to Belfast, Amster-
dam and the United States. He
returned to Japan on march 8.
olympic officials and the inter-
national sports federations re-
sponsible for staging the events in
To kyo have been in constant con-
tact with the World Health orga-
nization.
“It is not the role of WHo to call
off or not call off any type of
events,” WHo spokesman Ta rik
Jasarevic said monday. “As each
international mass gathering is
different, the factors to consider
when determining if the event
should be canceled may also dif-
fer. Any decision to change a
planned international gathering
should be based on a careful as-
sessment of the risks and how
they can be managed, and the
level of event planning.”
While Dick Pound, a longtime
IoC member, told the Associated
Press last month that a decision
probably would have to be made
by the end of may, another IoC
official said this week there is no
deadline facing the organization.
“The IoC didn’t recognize any
dates that Dick came up with, and
I think Dick backed off that as
well,” John Coates, head of the
IoC’s coordination commission
for the To kyo olympics, told the
Sydney morning Herald on mon-
day. “ It’s a ll proceeding to start on
the 24 th of July.”
The considerations posed by
any changes to the olympic
schedule largely fall into four cat-
egories: personnel and staffing;
venues; equipment and infra-
structure; and contracts and
scheduling. Those familiar with
the details of staging a Summer
Games say all the possibilities
present pros and cons, and each
likely will cost money that’s not
currently budgeted, will prompt
major disruptions and surely will
upset some athletes, sports, na-
tions, broadcasters and olympic
partners.

No spectators: No reward

While many leagues and major
sporting events halted operations
last week, those mostly covered
games and tournaments that
were scheduled for the next sever-
al weeks, the masters and the
NCAA basketball tournaments
among the most notable. But oth-
er summer events remain sched-
uled and have made no indica-
tions they are close to canceling or
suspending plans, including the
British open, Wimbledon and the
To ur de france.
The uncertainty surrounding
the virus means public health
officials can’t predict what the
landscape will look like in the
warm summer months, which has
given event organizers, such as
the IoC, trepidation to race into a
decision right now.
The chance of an athlete carry-
ing the virus into the olympic
Village or anyone contracting the
disease in To kyo and taking it
back home could prove too risky.
The health and safety of everyone

olympIcs from D1

Olympic organizers are faced with no satisfying solutions

AlKIs KOnstAntInIdIs/reuters

The flame may not be burning so bright for the Tokyo olympics, slated to begin July 2 4 but under a darkening coronavirus cloud.

BY MATT BONESTEEL

AND AVA WALLACE

french open officials an-
nounced Tuesday that the sea-
son’s second tennis Grand Slam
will be postponed until Septem-
ber because of the novel coronavi-
rus pandemic. The rescheduled
tournament is set to begin
Sept. 20 and end oct. 4.
“The current confinement
measures have made it impossi-
ble for us to continue with the
dates originally planned,” the
french open said in a statement.
The tournament originally was
scheduled to run from may 24 to
June 7. But on Saturday, french
Prime minister Édouard Philippe
announced that all nonessential
businesses must close until fur-
ther notice. The ATP To ur sus-
pended men’s tennis play for six
weeks Thursday, and monday the
WTA followed suit for the wom-

en’s tour, suspending play

through may 2.

on friday, france’s top two

soccer divisions announced they

would be suspending play indefi-

nitely.

former men’s professional

player Guy forget, now the

french open’s tournament direc-

tor, recently told L’Equipe maga-

zine that playing the tournament

without spectators could be ex-

plored, but the french ban on

large gatherings ended that hope.

“We have made a difficult yet

brave decision in this unprece-

dented situation, which has

evolved greatly since last week-

end,” Bernard Giudicelli, presi-

dent of the french Te nnis federa-

tion, said in a statement. “We are

acting responsibly, and must

work together in the fight to

ensure everybody’s health and

safety.”

on monday, an All England

Club spokeswoman said Wimble-

don, the season’s third major

tournament, was still scheduled

to be played beginning in late

June but also that club officials

“will act responsibly, in the best

interests of wider society.” Wim-

bledon was not played during

World War I and World War II.

The rescheduled french open

now will begin just one week

after the scheduled end of the

U.S. open, usually the year’s final

Grand Slam. on monday, U.S.

open organizers announced that

“we are not implementing any

changes to the 2020 U.S. open”

but acknowledged “that circum-

stances surrounding the CoVID-

19 virus are rapidly changing,”

Should both events go on as

planned, a six-day turnaround

between majors would be mas-

sively tricky for many players.

Grand Slams are the most gruel-

ing of all tennis tournaments;

they take place over two weeks

and require men to play best-of-

five-set matches rather than the

best-of-three-set matches they

pl ay during the rest of the year.

The change in surfaces would

also pose an unusual challenge:

The U.S. open is played on hard

courts and the french on red clay,

which requires entirely different

footwork and strategy. most play-

ers gradually ease from clay-

court season in spring to hard-

court season in late summer and

fall.

Scheduling conflicts could also

arise. Although Grand Slams are

the most important tournaments

of the season and may well take

precedence no matter what a

player has on the docket, many

players travel to Asia from

Sept. 20 to oct. 4 for tournaments

in China, South Korea and Japan.

[email protected]

[email protected]

French Open is postponed until September; Wimbledon schedule still stands

mArtIn BureAu/AgenCe FrAnCe-presse/getty ImAges

The French open was moved from late may to a late september

start because of the coronavirus, putting it j ust after the U.s. open.

eugene HOsHIKO/AssOCIAted press

For the Tokyo organizing committee and cEo Toshiro

muto, there is no trouble-free p ath forward for the Games.