TOKYO (AP) — There is no “Plan B” for the Olympics if they need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo organizers said Tuesday.
I suppose they have their fingers crossed. The only way these Olympics can be run is with a vaccine, imho. Otherwise, everyone will be at risk.
The US doesn’t even have a Plan A for COVID-45, so they shouldn’t complain.
Tokyo says it is spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, $5.6 billion is private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.
Honestly, the summer Olympics should be permanently moved to Greece so these kind of expenditures are not made every 4 years. Yes, a slightly different topic but related.
I’ll tell you what plan B is: don’t have an olympics this cycle. There will not be a vaccine by July 2021, so just don’t do it. The money already spent is a sunk cost they were never going to recover anyways, and the cost/revenue of the actual 14 day event is break-even at best.
Of course there’s no Plan B. The re-schedule is a face-saving, costly effort. In a world where reason prevails, we’d just cancel, like we have for every other sporting event. But the IOC and Japan Govt seem to think they have to have it. I’d say the chances are less than 50% that this will be a good idea.