(ATR) The rowing and canoeing venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will remain in Tokyo Bay.
A four-party working group consisting of Tokyo 2020 organizers, the International Olympic Committee, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Japan’s Olympics minister met Tuesday and decided it would be more cost effective to keep its original venue plans.
The proposal to move rowing and canoe to the Naganuma course in Miyagi prefecture came from the TMG in an effort to keep the Tokyo 2020 budget in check. The TMG feared the budget would exceed $30 billion but after Tuesday’s meeting it seems it is content to seek cost-cutting measures elsewhere.
The Naganuma course will now be used as a training facility ahead of the Games once construction is completed.
Tokyo 2020 organizers will also scale back the spectator capacity at the aquatics arena, removing 5,000 seats in order to maintain its location. The stadium will now hold 15,000 spectators.
The volleyball venue is the only one that remains under speculation as to whether it will be moved from Tokyo. The current proposal is to stage the event at the to-be-constructed Ariake Stadium but Governor Koike has asked for an extension until Dec. 25 to determine whether the venue should be moved to Yokohama.
Koike wants to conduct full architectural reviews of both of the venues and further inspect the cost projections for each project. IOC member John Coates, head of the Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission and member of the four-party panel, called into question the short time frame to conduct the review but accepted the proposal.
Tokyo 2020 chief executive Toshiro Muto also questioned whether the infrastructure in Yokohama would be sufficient to handle the influx of visitors to the city.
"Yokohama Arena is surely great facility for games, but a lot of problems on surrounding environment are raised by Technical Working Team from IOC," Muto told the 260 media members in attendance at the open meeting. "It is difficult to expect how spectators will move because of the traffic regulation and the complexity of traffic environment around Yokohama Arena.
"Such an uncertainty makes it difficult for us to compare the conditions of Yokohama and Ariake. Concerned parties such as National and International Federations are hoping that the conclusion is made soon."
The meeting headlined by Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori, IOC vice president John Coates, Tokyo Governor Koike and Olympics minister Tamayo Marukawa comes on the second day of the Rio 2016 transfer of knowledge session.
Tokyo 2020 has 500 delegates at the session learning from Rio 2016 organizers what it takes to stage successful Olympics. The meeting concludes on Wednesday and is followed by the third IOC CoComm visit to Tokyo on Thursday.
Reported and written by Hironori Hashimoto and Kevin Nutley.
Photos by Keiya Sano.
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