IOC, Tokyo Search for Olympic Savings

(ATR) No decision yet on whether to move the rowing venue for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

IOC president Thomas Bach met with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike in the Olympic city on Tuesday where both agreed to look for ways to reduce costs of the Games.

Moving the rowing venue is among the possible cost savings. Koike is considering a proposal to move it from a ship canal on Tokyo Bay to another location 250 miles north. The rowing venue is one of the last remaining venues for 2020 Olympics in Tokyo proper that requires substantial construction. Developing the site could cost more than $300 million, with about $100 million of that specific to the rowing venue.

There is also talk that the IOC has suggested a venue in South Korea used for the rowing world championships and Asian Games.

The upshot of the meeting Tuesday is an agreement between the IOC and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to form a working group to study further cost-cutting for Tokyo 2020. In the past year, nearly $2 billion in construction costs have supposedly been avoided with a comprehensive review of venues that’s resulted in widespread changes from the Tokyo bid.

"We are going to cooperate very closely to make these Olympic Games the great success for Tokyo, the great success for Japan and for the Olympic Committee," Bach told reporters after meeting with Koike at the skyscraper city hall.

"We are always ready to cooperate and to look into the best and most feasible way to organize the Olympic Games."

Tokyo 2020 director general Toshiro Muto applauded the agreement.

"The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee sees this as a highly constructive proposal that will accelerate the ongoing discussions on various issues, help realize further cost savings, and maximize the impact and contribution of the Tokyo 2020 Games," Muto said in a statement.

"We will continue working towards the realization of a successful Games, and hope to base this on a foundation of solid trust between the IOC, IPC and international federations, while meeting the expectations of the people of Tokyo and Japan."

Bach echoed Muto's sentiment and harkened back to a favorite expression of the late Juan Antonio Samaranch. "We are all in the same boat" he said about the need for IOC, government, organizing committee and federations to work together for a successful Olympics.

Bach is accompanied in Tokyo by IOC vice president John Coates who leads the IOC coordination commission for the 2020 Games.

Bach said he could not comment on the possibility of using the rowing venue in South Korea as an alternative to the Tokyo site.

The Chungju Tangeum Lake International Rowing Center was used for the 2013 World Rowing Championships and the 2014 Asian Games.

Muto says the inaugural meeting of the working group will likely take place next month.

Written by Ed Hula.