Tokyo 2020: what is the price to pay for hosting an Olympic Games?

Past Games have shown that the final budget for staging the greatest show on earth is many times more than originally planned, and Tokyo is no exception

The IOC is desperate to bring down costs by encouraging cities to use temporary or existing venues

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Official figures put the cost of the Tokyo Games at more than US$15 billion, including the building of the main stadium. The true figure is likely to be much higher. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:30pm, 21 Jul 2021Updated: 3:52pm, 29 Jul 2021

The Olympic Games do not come cheap. A host city needs to commit billions of dollars on venues, infrastructure, personnel and entertainment and, in its lopsided contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it is often selling its soul.

In past editions, the costs of staging the world’s premier sporting event has soared to the value of a small country’s entire economy. In almost all cases, the actual cost is much higher than the estimates put forward when a city won the bid.

Tokyo may have celebrated in 2013 when it won the right to stage the 2020 Summer Games, but the bill of hosting a spectator-less Olympics after a year-long postponement may be as high as US$25 billion. Host cities are no longer stampeding to sign up and a handful of candidates even withdrew from the race to stage the 2022 Winter Games and the 2024 Summer Olympics.

How much has Tokyo spent?

The budget has ballooned to US$15.4 billion, twice its winning bid of US$7.5 billion in 2013. And it could be more – audits by the Japanese government are pinning the figure at more than US$25 billion.

Much of the financial burden falls on Japanese taxpayers, who will fund about 55 per cent. The remaining US$6.7 billion is privately funded, banking on sponsorship, ticket sales and contribution from the IOC. However, with spectators banned because of Covid-19 restrictions, ticket sales are likely to provide negligible returns.