Olympics Are Turning into a $20B Bust for Japan

The poor complain; they always do But that’s just idle chatter Our system brings reward to all At least all those who matter.

Doesn’t this happen in almost every country that hosts the Olympics? If my city were proposed as a site for the games I would oppose it as much as possible.

I agree 100%, the problem is the Olympics committee themselves, where they have such strict requirements that almost make it that you have to build all these one-time structures.

This video gives a great view into how crazy it actually is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3FKtBNEBRc

Money (/prestige/fame), I guess? The people/companies benefiting from it aren't the ones footing the bill.

It was probably not pushed to 2024 because Paris has already started prepping for those and would not allow Tokyo to push their date. A lot of the facilities work is built under the assumption of a particular schedule, at least when it comes to expected longevity and plans for the infrastructure after the games; you can push out some things for a year but people already have plans and schedules for using the space taken up by some of the facilities. Maybe they could have given Tokyo 2032, but it would have represented a huge loss in terms of wasted funds and few of the facilities would be available for the later games.

There is also the reputation aspects to consider. The IOC is a rigid, corrupt organization and any disruption or delay that might turn any focus to the IOC itself is not to be tolerated. I am assuming that internally the org is willing to put up with another Montreal or Sochi if it means that the schedule keeps ticking along and the org can hope that people forget the failures in four or eight years.

The athletes certainly want to participate. Athletes have a very limited time in which to be at their peak. The Olympics is the top international competition for many sports, and is literally a lifelong dream. Quite a few would be too old come 2024; it would be time for the next set of athletes to get their turn.

I don't know if the athletes themselves were really high up in the list of things to be considered, but I'm sure they're all very happy to be allowed to compete. It won't be quite the same as the thing they dreamed of, but I suspect some are happier to have it be less of a carnival.

The Olympic village was already presold as apartments. Purchasers already delayed moving in by a year due to the pandemic, it's not like you can just ask them to wait 3 more years to move into apartments they already paid for.