What is the cost of hosting the Tokyo Olympics?
Olympics is the most decorated sporting event because of its rich heritage and the huge amount of money that goes into making this event. The cost of the Tokyo Olympics, which is set to begin from 23rd July, will be much higher than any other Olympics which happened in the past. In the 2016 Olympics, the cost of the games was approximately US$ 11.1 billion. Let us see how much cost is going into the preperation of the Tokyo Olympics. In 2013, when IOC (International Olympic Committee) awarded the games, Tokyo said that the Olympics would cost about US$ 7.5 billion, but now the actual cost is completely different. The reason for showing less cost compared to the actual cost of the game was, "We wanted the budget to appear as small as possible to guard against public criticism and also not to discourage future cities that will be hosting Olympics" quoted by IOC and TOCOG (Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games). Now coming to the actual cost, the games which was scheduled to happen in 2020, had US$ 12.6 billion as its budget. But, due to the pandemic the cost of the games went up by 22% and hence it is now US$ 15.4 billion. The added US$ 2.8 billion is because of the one year delay and other issues like renegotiating contracts, taking measures against the pandemic, etc. However, audits by the Japanese government show the costs are higher than official cost and are estimated to be US$ 25 billion.