Could be the most expensive in history: – Madness – VG

Oxford researcher Alexandre Podzier studied budgets in Tokyo and other Olympic budgets in time.

The cost of hosting the Olympic Games is completely out of control. It’s crazy, Budzier tells VG.

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He is one of the authors behind one Report She called “Sliding to the Tail: Why the Olympics Blow Up.”

When Tokyo won the Olympics in 2013, the official budget was $7.3 billion. This amount has grown steadily since then. It is basically Not Because of the corona pandemic.

– Now the official figures are 16.7 billion dollars (147 billion kroner). But a Japanese government review of the figures two years ago found that a number of expenses that should have been incurred by the local Olympic organizer were spread over several government ministries, Podzer says.

The government audit landed, according to the researcher, a total of $27 billion. Since then, more expenses have appeared – and lost in revenue.

– I suppose the amount today is closer to $30 billion (264 billion kroner), says Podzer.

“Beats” Sochi

In this case, the most expensive Olympics in history opens in Tokyo on Friday night – despite the fact that the majority of these residents believe the Games should have been cancelled.

Alexander Podzer and his colleagues at the University of Oxford reviewed the budgets of the various Olympic organizers in a timely manner. Only the Sochi Winter Olympics can rival Tokyo, at $21 billion.

The researchers omitted costs related to infrastructure, such as airports and road networks. Only expenses directly related to the holding of the Olympic Games are included in the calculation.

When there are public discussions about Olympic applications, budgets are always talked about. Reality comes a day when you are “in trouble”. Then you can not withdraw. The truth is that the IOC takes no risk: it is guaranteed both sponsorship and media revenue. The risk, Budzier says, is with the local regulator, who has to pay for the excesses.

The IOC has previously criticized the use of the figures in the Podzier and colleagues report at Oxford.

And when IOC Vice President John Coates was asked to comment on the report in his home country last fall, he replied:

I have come to the conclusion that I have more productive things to spend time on than analyzing and answering questions about that report.

Kloster Assn: Change in progress

Newly elected IOC board member Christine Kloster Assen (60), leads the committee itself, which maintains a dialogue with potential future organizing nations.

On Wednesday this week, the 2032 elections took place in Australia and Brisbane. Kloster Aasen talks about an entirely new way of selecting Olympic organizers than before, when a vote was held at the International Olympic Committee seven years before the Games:

– It is now a completely open process where everyone who wants to take responsibility for the organizer contacts the IOC and says so “We are interested and we can develop a concept that suits our country in terms of sports facilities – but also in the development of buildings and infrastructure”as you say.

Kloster Aasen talks about how Australia will develop the area around Brisbane by 2040, and that the Olympics are only part of that plan.

– Now you will not build a number of new stadiums or infrastructure because you will be hosting the Olympics. It was completely turned upside down. The IOC is committed to becoming a relevant organization that is equipped for the future. That’s what these fixes are about, she tells VG in Tokyo.

According to the 60-year-old, the Olympic Bispin app is 80 percent cheaper than other Olympic apps in recent years.

skeptical

In England, Alexander Budzir is not reassured.

– If you want to improve public health and have NOK 264 billion available: do you then arrange an Olympics, or expand bike paths in Oslo until you reach the level of Copenhagen? Asked.

– In Norway, some will arrange the Olympics “Norwegian way”, and with the reuse of facilities. Is it still possible?

– I don’t think building is cheap in Norway. The argument often used is to reuse the facilities you already have. But the requirements for holding the Olympics are so high that it becomes a foolish argument that the International Olympic Committee requires.

Instead, Podzier launched the idea of ​​the Scandinavian Olympic Games.

– Such solutions can have a future if you do not want to make the Olympic Games completely static, as in previous times. But he believes the IOC is not equipped to do it this way.

Click bang in Tokyo

The researcher believes that the Tokyo Olympics cost twice as much as the games in London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016).

When the opening ceremony plaza was due to be built on Friday, star architect Zaha Hadid was engaged. Her proposal was scrapped when a price of NOK 17.6 billion came to the table.

Entering another architect, Kengo Kuma, who launched a stadium built of steel and wood for “only” 12.3 billion crowns.

And so it went: According to Business Insider, the gymnastics grounds cost more than double the planned cost and landed at NOK 1.8 billion. The swimming arena is said to have cost 4.7 billion NOK – just to name a few.

The next tournament will be held without an audience in the stands. It allegedly costs the regulator 7.5 billion kroner. However, it is not the covid-19 pandemic that is fundamentally upsetting budgets in Japan during the day.

Bach did not worry

At the same time, doubts about the Olympic Games are high in the host country of 128 million people, at least as a result of the ongoing Corona epidemic.

At a press conference before the Games, IOC President Thomas Bach was asked when the enthusiasm in Japan would increase:

When the Olympic flame shines over Tokyo. It’s totally normal, and we learn about it from previous games. But then the sport began and the athletes shone on the Olympic stage, answered the German.