The Tokyo 2016 Olympic bid committee is hoping that less will be more.
Less travel time to events and venues for athletes, spectators and media; a less harmful impact on the environment; less costly construction projects by using existing facilities.
"The idea is to have a compact Games that are very athlete-friendly," Yosuke Fujiwara, Tokyo 2016 senior executive officer of planning and PR, said during a recent media tour of the proposed venues. "You will be able to reach most of the venues from the athletes' village within 20 minutes."
Of course, they also point out that when it comes to overall finances, it doesn't hurt to have a little more.
Tokyo is up against bids from Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Games. The winning bid will be announced by the International Olympic Committee on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.
The focal point of the Tokyo proposal will be a brand-new 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium to be built in Tokyo Bay on reclaimed land, just northwest of Ariake Colosseum. The proposed stadium will be semi-enclosed and feature large solar panels and possibly wind turbines to cut down on the need for electricity.
With the new stadium as the centerpiece, organizers boast that 95 percent of the Olympic events will be held within an 8-kilometer radius. There will be preliminary round soccer matches at far-flung sites like Sapporo and Saitama, but for the most part, the events will be quite concentrated.
"With 95 percent of all venues located within the 8-kilometer radius, this will be the most compact Games ever," said Masanori Takaya, the bid's manager of international communications.
Takaya pointed out that within the 8-km circle, there would be five main venue "clusters" representing various themes. The "Palace Cluster," for example, would be geared toward Japanese culture while the "Sea Forest Cluster" would highlight sustainable Tokyo, with the planting of trees.
In keeping with the theme of an environmentally friendly Games, several facilities, such as the mountain-biking course and equestrian events, will be staged on landfill sites and reclaimed land.
"As part of our unique 'green' and sustainable Games plan, 20 out of 34 Olympic venues will be on reclaimed land, helping to ensure that Tokyo 2016 will be the 'greenest' Games ever staged," Fujiwara said. "This equates to approximately 60 percent of competition venues."
The Tokyo 2016 bid plans to use 23 existing venues with 11 new venues proposed, many of those to go up on land already owned by the metropolitan government. Among the more interesting venues that are already in operation, the Nippon Budokan, which was built for the 1964 Olympics, would host judo and the famed Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena will be the site of the boxing competition.
While Tokyo's proposal has gotten high marks from the IOC so far--the bid ranked first or second in 10 of the 11 categories assessed by the Candidature Acceptance Working Group--the biggest strength may be the metropolis' finances rather than its venue plans.
"The Tokyo metropolitan government has 6.6 trillion yen from its annual budget in its general account, the most for any city in the world," Takaya said. "We already have $4.4 billion (402 billion yen) secured for the Games from the TMG and Japan's central government will guarantee the event."
Not all in the Tokyo assembly, however, support huge spending on the Olympics with the total budget for the bid campaign alone to top 10 billion yen. Other funding for the Games will come from television rights, sponsorship from the private sector and ticket sales.
Final details of the Tokyo 2016 bid's budget will not be revealed until after Thursday, the deadline for the four cities to make their final candidature submissions to the IOC. After that, the next key date is in mid-April, when the IOC's evaluation commission hits town to check out the bid up close and personal.
Tokyo's bid initially suffered from public indifference--an IOC poll conducted in June showed that only 59 percent of the public backed Tokyo's Olympic bid, the lowest among all four candidate cities (Chicago 74 percent, Rio 77, Madrid 90)--but organizers say they have overcome that, pointing to a recent Internet poll that showed local support up to 70.2 percent. (That poll was carried out by a private entity commissioned by the Tokyo 2016 Bid Committee.)
Security concerns could work against both Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, which means Chicago is expected to be Tokyo's main competition in the race. The U.S. Midwest city will likely get a major boost from native son Barack Obama, the newly elected U.S. president who may travel to Copenhagen in October for the final vote. Tokyo organizers have countered that they hope to have Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Denmark, but even if Aso is still in power at the time, he would appear to be no match for the cachet and star-power of Obama.(IHT/Asahi: February 11,2009)
Less travel time to events and venues for athletes, spectators and media; a less harmful impact on the environment; less costly construction projects by using existing facilities.
"The idea is to have a compact Games that are very athlete-friendly," Yosuke Fujiwara, Tokyo 2016 senior executive officer of planning and PR, said during a recent media tour of the proposed venues. "You will be able to reach most of the venues from the athletes' village within 20 minutes."
Of course, they also point out that when it comes to overall finances, it doesn't hurt to have a little more.
Tokyo is up against bids from Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Games. The winning bid will be announced by the International Olympic Committee on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.
The focal point of the Tokyo proposal will be a brand-new 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium to be built in Tokyo Bay on reclaimed land, just northwest of Ariake Colosseum. The proposed stadium will be semi-enclosed and feature large solar panels and possibly wind turbines to cut down on the need for electricity.
With the new stadium as the centerpiece, organizers boast that 95 percent of the Olympic events will be held within an 8-kilometer radius. There will be preliminary round soccer matches at far-flung sites like Sapporo and Saitama, but for the most part, the events will be quite concentrated.
"With 95 percent of all venues located within the 8-kilometer radius, this will be the most compact Games ever," said Masanori Takaya, the bid's manager of international communications.
Takaya pointed out that within the 8-km circle, there would be five main venue "clusters" representing various themes. The "Palace Cluster," for example, would be geared toward Japanese culture while the "Sea Forest Cluster" would highlight sustainable Tokyo, with the planting of trees.
In keeping with the theme of an environmentally friendly Games, several facilities, such as the mountain-biking course and equestrian events, will be staged on landfill sites and reclaimed land.
"As part of our unique 'green' and sustainable Games plan, 20 out of 34 Olympic venues will be on reclaimed land, helping to ensure that Tokyo 2016 will be the 'greenest' Games ever staged," Fujiwara said. "This equates to approximately 60 percent of competition venues."
The Tokyo 2016 bid plans to use 23 existing venues with 11 new venues proposed, many of those to go up on land already owned by the metropolitan government. Among the more interesting venues that are already in operation, the Nippon Budokan, which was built for the 1964 Olympics, would host judo and the famed Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena will be the site of the boxing competition.
While Tokyo's proposal has gotten high marks from the IOC so far--the bid ranked first or second in 10 of the 11 categories assessed by the Candidature Acceptance Working Group--the biggest strength may be the metropolis' finances rather than its venue plans.
"The Tokyo metropolitan government has 6.6 trillion yen from its annual budget in its general account, the most for any city in the world," Takaya said. "We already have $4.4 billion (402 billion yen) secured for the Games from the TMG and Japan's central government will guarantee the event."
Not all in the Tokyo assembly, however, support huge spending on the Olympics with the total budget for the bid campaign alone to top 10 billion yen. Other funding for the Games will come from television rights, sponsorship from the private sector and ticket sales.
Final details of the Tokyo 2016 bid's budget will not be revealed until after Thursday, the deadline for the four cities to make their final candidature submissions to the IOC. After that, the next key date is in mid-April, when the IOC's evaluation commission hits town to check out the bid up close and personal.
Tokyo's bid initially suffered from public indifference--an IOC poll conducted in June showed that only 59 percent of the public backed Tokyo's Olympic bid, the lowest among all four candidate cities (Chicago 74 percent, Rio 77, Madrid 90)--but organizers say they have overcome that, pointing to a recent Internet poll that showed local support up to 70.2 percent. (That poll was carried out by a private entity commissioned by the Tokyo 2016 Bid Committee.)
Security concerns could work against both Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, which means Chicago is expected to be Tokyo's main competition in the race. The U.S. Midwest city will likely get a major boost from native son Barack Obama, the newly elected U.S. president who may travel to Copenhagen in October for the final vote. Tokyo organizers have countered that they hope to have Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Denmark, but even if Aso is still in power at the time, he would appear to be no match for the cachet and star-power of Obama.(IHT/Asahi: February 11,2009)
No comments:
Post a Comment