Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 129, April 2020 | Page 37

In the case of Tokyo 2020, a total of 41 venues had been made available for the
Games, including not only stadia, but also venues to house the International
Broadcast Centre (IBC) and the Media Centre for the world’s media. Talks are now
ongoing with operators to ensure that each of these venues will be available next
summer, but there are already problems. For example, the IBC and Media Centre
venues are conference venues and have already been booked for that time in 2021.
The Athletes Village poses another headache. As with previous Games, these
facilities will be handed over to property developers to be converted into residential
units after the Games, and some of these units have already been sold. These
new owners now face the prospect of only being able take ownership and move in
some time in 2023. Fortunately, only about 10% of the units have been sold at this
point, but as you can imagine, some of those new owners are not happy about the
year-long postponement.
Lesego Stephen Mokoka
have been postponed to then, and while this is going to cause congestion on the
racing calendar, it raises an interesting scenario as top athletes will be able to pick
their events, and possibly name their price tag for appearance fees, as events
compete for the best talent.
Counting the Cost
Meanwhile, the postponement is potentially financially catastrophic for the IOC.
The global body earns US$4.1 billion from selling sponsorship and media rights
around the Games, and these agreements with sponsors, television networks and
media houses would have already been in place for a few years. The decision
to postpone the Games thus comes with a huge financial risk to the IOC, and is
possibly why it was so hesitant to postpone.
The IOC has already indicated that the sponsorship deals for 2020 will be rolled
over to 2021, but there are a host of new sponsors that would have started their
Olympic journey in 2021 ahead of the 2024 Games, and now there is an overlap.
Meanwhile, the broadcasters will have already bought the rights to other sporting
events, meets and tournaments scheduled for July-August 2021. How do they now
manage an already congested broadcast schedule becoming still more congested?
Also, the Olympics is a prime opportunity to sell advertising around the Games,
with most sales already having been done ahead of the Tokyo Games. For
example, NBC recently announced that they had already sold US$1.25 billion in
advertising around coverage of the 2020 Games. Do the IOC and broadcasters
now roll those sales over to next year, or do they return the funds? More than likely,
both will try to thrash out deals with their advertisers in order to retain all or most
of the cash, but certain advertising may only take place around the Olympics, so it
cannot be used anywhere else. Just one more problem to solve…
Tokyo’s Financial Nightmare
Now spare a thought for Tokyo. The host city spent seven years planning these
Olympics. SportsPro, a website specialising in sport sponsorship, recently made
this observation: “With so much money invested and so many moving parts
covering operational areas, like venues, sponsorship, broadcasting, ticketing,
hotels, transportation, security and merchandising, the task of rescheduling this
summer’s Games in 2021 will be immense, to say the least.”
Echoing these sentiments is World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe, who
presided over the 2012 London Games. In a recent interview with CNN, he said,
“If I had an hour to spare with you, and you had the space to fill, I don’t think I
could even begin to get across the enormity of this project. There is no project
management that is more challenging in the life of any city, or any country, under
normal circumstances, than the delivery of the Games.”
The problem goes still further than just venues. Also think about the hotels in Tokyo
and surrounds, with some 40,000 hotel rooms having been booked for the Games. Will
these rooms be available next year? Then there is the marketing side of the Games,
with promotional campaign materials that have been designed and produced, but will
need to be redone for next year. And what about the salaries of the LOC, which will
need to be extended by another year, and all the contracts with suppliers that will need
to be renegotiated? All in all, the Japanese business newspaper, Nikkei, estimates
that postponing the Games will cost the city an additional US$2.7 billion, on top of the
US$12.6 billion Tokyo has already spent on these Games!
Impact on the Global Calendar
By postponing the Olympics, the IOC has effectively postponed global sport by
a year, leading to further postponements or clashes. For starters, the 2021 World
Athletics Championships, set to take place in Eugene, Oregon in the USA from 15-
25 July, have now been postponed to 15-24 July 2022, because the original date
would clash with the revised Olympic date – athletes would literally finish the World
Champs and start the Olympics on the same day!
However, the next Commonwealth Games (CWG) are scheduled to take place from
27 July to 7 August 2022, in Birmingham in the UK, meaning these Games will now
start just a few days after the athletics World Champs. This raises questions about the
fitness of the athletes who would be selected for both, and most top athletes will focus
on the World Championships rather than the CWG, which for the CWG would be a
blow, as they are already struggling for relevancy and credibility in athletics circles.
That said, the revised calendar does allow Athletics South Africa (ASA) a unique
opportunity. By having the CWG a week after the World Championships, ASA could
effectively send two teams and thereby give more athletes an opportunity to compete
on the global stage. For countries such as South Africa, the CWG are vitally important,
as they offer a brilliant stepping stone for our emerging athletes to get to Olympic level,
by exposing them to the travel, pressure and experience of a multi-national games.
Therefore, the CWG would
possibly be a better choice for
the likes of SA junior 100m record
hold Phatutshedzo Maswangani,
who is more likely to reach the
later rounds of competition in the
CWG than the World Champs,
and thus benefit more from the
experience and exposure there. In
contrast, the World Champs are
a bigger incentive for top athletes
such as Akani, Wayde van
Niekerk and Luvo Manyonga, but
SASCOC will undoubtedly want
them in Birmingham, to boost
the country’s medal hopes, so a
potential dilemma awaits on the
horizon for some of our athletes.
To be blunt. It’s a scheduling
mess of epic proportions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Manfred Seidler is a freelance sport journalist who has
been in the industry since 1994, in both print media and broadcasting, covering
four Olympic Games for SABC Radio, and producing various athletics shows
for the SABC. Follow him on Twitter: @sportmansa; Facebook: Sport Man SA;
Instagram: sportman_sa.
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