Postponement and questions .. Japan faces an economic and organizational dilemma after the Olympics postponement

The International Olympic Committee and Japan announced on Tuesday the postponement of the summer Olympics scheduled for this year in Tokyo, after increasing demands from athletes, in a precedent outside wartime, that are likely to cause enormous economic repercussions after years of preparation.

The announcement came in a joint statement between the two parties, after a telephone conversation between German International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The two parties did not specify a new date for the session, but they agreed that it be postponed "until after 2020, but not later than the summer of 2021".

The decision to postpone poses significant challenges for Japan, which was preparing to host the biggest sporting event between July 24 and August 9, including:

Reschedule competitions

Holding the Olympics in the summer of 2021 will be a nightmare for athletes and owners of TV rights, because this year mainly includes several sports dates.

The next summer's Olympics may conflict with the World Athletics Championships scheduled for the United States in August. But the International Federation of "Mother of the Games" confirmed Monday that it had begun discussing the possibility of modifying the tournament's date in coordination with the host city of Oregon.

The world swimming championships are also scheduled to be held in Japan between July 16 and August 1 2021, in addition to the European Cup and Copa America football tournaments scheduled in the summer of 2020, which were postponed to the summer of next year due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus.

Stadiums and facilities

The games will be held at 43 Olympic facilities, some of which are temporary, some are specially built for the event, and others will be reused for various purposes after the tournament, all of which will face difficult challenges after the decision to postpone.

The Olympic Committee said earlier that "a number of facilities that we need for the Games may not be available" in the event of a delay.

And it's not just the sports facilities, as the organizers have reserved a huge exhibition center in Tokyo to turn it into the press center that thousands are expected to use while covering the global event.

The Big Site is one of the largest in Asia, hosting major conferences and events, and it is usually reserved months ago. It will be a challenge for the organizers to change the date of his reservation for the Olympic Games, or to persuade those who have already booked him to move to another place (in case the two dates are opposed).

Olympic Village
Many questions revolve around the fate of the Olympic Village built on expensive real estate overlooking Tokyo Bay, skyscrapers and the famous "rainbow" bridge.

The village includes 21 buildings consisting of 14 to 18 floors with a total capacity of 18 thousand beds during the Olympic Games and 8 thousand Paralympic games for people with special needs.

The scheme required the village to be rehabilitated and converted into thousands of luxury private apartments and offered for sale or rent. The first batch of 940 apartments were put up for sale at the beginning of the summer of 2019, and most of them were sold out, according to Japanese press reports.

In light of the postponement of the games, the organizers will have to postpone the qualification works, and consequently delay the delivery of the apartments to the buyers who previously signed contracts.

Hotels

Among the challenges mentioned by the ICRC is hotel reservations that cost millions and that will be "very difficult to tackle".

Before the outbreak of the Coronavirus, there was concern in Japan that there were not enough rooms in the hotels for those who would attend the Games, and it was suggested that a cruise ship be docked and used as a floating hotel. But this idea seems to be excluded, especially after more than 600 people on board the "Diamond Princess" cruise ship in Corona were recorded, and more than three thousand people were quarantined on board for several weeks.

I booked many hotel rooms many months ago, where many paid huge sums as a first payment that they might lose, in addition to having to re-book again in light of the postponement of the games.

It is feared that the hotel sector will face a major crisis due to the postponement of the Olympics, knowing that it is already suffering from a decline in reservations due to the sharp drop in the number of tourists due to the outbreak of the Corona virus, which killed more than 17 thousand people around the world and caused extensive restrictions on movement and travel.

Is it on the positive side?
Holding the Olympics in a period other than summer may solve a dilemma that posed a major concern in the Tokyo session, which is the hot weather the country is witnessing in this season. This could allow the marathon to be returned to the Japanese capital after it was moved to the northern city of Sapporo, which is in milder weather, fearing the impact of extreme heat and high humidity on the safety of the runners.

Deferring the games will give sports federations around the world time to prepare for qualifying and qualifying tournaments, a matter of concern for many athletes who are unable to train in natural conditions.