Tokyo Presents Budget Version Three

(ATR) The budget for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics remains at $12.6 billion, as organizers presented a balanced organizing committee budget on Friday.

The Tokyo Organizing Committee's budget accounts for $5.6 billion of the total, and is comprised of sponsorship, ticket sales, an IOC contribution, and licensed merchandise. Organizers say the OCOG budget "remains balanced and fully privately financed".

The organizing committee reported an increase in sponsorship revenue in this version of the budget. Tokyo 2020 has raised $3 billion in sponsorship revenue, with an additional 100 million expected.

There were fears that the third version of the budget would rise above the $12.6 billion from version two. Toshiro Muto, Tokyo 2020 chief executive, raised concerns earlier this month that the government budgets could have increases in different areas due to costs associated with fighting extreme weather. Muto said that despite cost-cutting measures touted by the organizing committee and the IOC, the new measures could offset those savings.

This past year has been one of multiple budget concerns for organizers, as government officials and Olympic officials clashed over what was considered an expense for the Games.

Friction began in early 2018 when Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Yuriko Koike presented additional costs to prepare the city for the Paralympics. Tokyo 2020 said that these costs should not be considered part of the overall budget.

Then in October the Japanese Board of Audits released a report saying that government spending for the Olympics had surpassed $7 billion in spending since 2013, which equaled the total projected cost of the Olympics in the Tokyo 2020 bid book.

Both Tokyo 2020 and the IOC questioned the report saying that some projects being explored by the national government as part of the Olympics were not pertinent to staging the event.

The government budget remains at $7 billion, split between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the National Government, and other prefectural governments.

Nine new permanent venues are being built for the 2020 Olympics, which cost nearly half ($3.2 billion) of the non-organizing committee budget.

"As many aspects of the Games have become more detailed, Tokyo 2020 has seen increases in some new areas but has successfully reduced expenditures in other areas, resulting in the updated budget remaining the same as the previous version," Muto said in a statement about the budget.

"There is still a lot of work to be done to control expenditures, but with the cooperation of the IOC, Tokyo 2020 will continue to make best efforts to maximize revenues, contain costs and keep its budget within 600 billion yen."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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