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 IOC vice president John Coates, on a visit to Tokyo on Tuesday,
asked Japan to deliver the stadium by January 2020 ahead of their
hosting of the Games which are scheduled to take place from July
24-Aug. 9.
Japan's Olympic minister Toshiaki Endo said the deadline, set in
order that the venue could host necessary test events prior to the
Games, would be tough to meet.
"It was going to be April on a very tight schedule," Endo was quoted
as saying by Kyodo News of the planned completion date.
"We can ask the contractors to push it, but we have no idea if it's
doable."
Japan scrapped its original plan for the new National stadium last
month in the face of widespread outrage after costs ballooned to
$2.1 billion, nearly twice original estimates -- an unusual move for
an Olympic host city this late in the process.
Earlier this month, Japan approved guidelines for its new Olympic
stadium, vowing to build an athlete-friendly stadium as cheaply as
possible.
Kyodo said Australian Coates, head of the Coordination Commission
for the Tokyo Olympics, had stressed the new stadium would not
require a 80,000 seating capacity as with the original futuristic
designed venue by U.K.-based Zaha Hadid Architects.
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The stadium issues are not the only problems to have hit
preparations for the Tokyo's second Olympics.
Organizers have rolled back on promises to have most venues within
eight kilometers of the Olympic Village, while the Olympic logo has
become the focus of plagiarism accusations which Japan and its
designer deny.
(Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; editing by Amlan
Chakraborty)
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