Bach Confident Tokyo 2020 Can Keep Costs Down

(ATR) Thomas Bach stresses to Around The Rings he is confident that by working closely with organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, they will keep budget costs down.

Last month, a Tokyo Metropolitan Task Force report claimed the Games' budget would inflate to almost $30 billion if drastic changes were not made.

The panel, commissioned by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, also suggested a number of venue changes to keep costs down for the Games.

Bach, in Lausanne this week for the SportAccord IF Forum, confirmed when asked by ATR that the IOC was closely working with the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee to deliver a Games with realistic budget figures.

"We have created this four partite working group," he said. "This working group had its first meeting last week and the meetings went very well and I think we will also have very good results with a significant decrease of the numbers which have been published before."

A number of venue changes were proposed in the report including moving rowing and canoeing to the Naganuma site in Tome city, nearly 250 miles north of Tokyo.

Representatives from both federations of rowing and canoeing are understood to be against the move, while the IOC is not keen on the idea either.

All parties involved hope to have a resolution by the end of the month.

Written by Christian Radnedge in Lausanne.

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