Olympics organisers mull postponement in wake of coronavirus
With stricter measures being applied to large-scale events the world-over as coronavirus spreads, all eyes have been on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to see whether it will run. The latest reports are now suggesting that Olympics officials are considering a postponement if the situation doesn’t improve.
Olympics organisers mull postponement in wake of coronavirus
According to reports, a Tokyo 2020 organizing committee executive has told The Wall Street Journal that one option that is being seriously considered is postponing the event by one to two years.
The preparations for the Olympics for the host nation, event sponsors and participating teams and athletes has been a core consideration when considering the options around what to do with the event, should the virus spread not improve.
The official told the Wall Street Journal that while a full cancellation and the idea of running the event via broadcast and without spectators at the venues had been considered, the financial implications of these options were not as attractive as postponing.
Despite a postponement being a more favourable financial option, it’ll still likely hit the broadcast and media rights owners hard, with billions of revenue from sponsors being shifted to later dates or cancelled.
The latest comments shed more light on the discussions that are happening internally around the Olympics but the official line, which came from Olympic Committee organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori, is that the event will go ahead on 24 July as planned.
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