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 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last week that he had
decided to take the stadium plans back to square one in the face of
growing public outrage over ballooning costs, as his support rates
took a hit over unpopular defense bills.
The sudden decision over the stadium, designed by U.K.-based
architect Zaha Hadid and set to be the centerpiece for the 2020
Summer Olympics, took many by surprise and became the latest in a
series of broken promises connected to the event.
But Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games, said substantial savings on the
stadium -- projected to cost some $2 billion, nearly twice original
estimates -- fit right in to the IOC's new cost-cutting policy,
Agenda 2020.
Mori acknowledged that the futuristic stadium design had probably
helped Tokyo beat off Istanbul and Madrid to be awarded the Games in
2013 but that the IOC was likely to approve the revised plans at a
meeting in Kuala Lumpur later this month.
"If the decision was made to save money, it should go right in line
with the IOC's Agenda 2020," Mori told a news conference in Tokyo on
Wednesday.
Many nations have downsized stadium projects but it is highly
unusual to change plans completely at this stage and risks damaging
the can-do reputation that was one of the reasons Tokyo won the
games.
NEW RUGBY HOME
IOC president Thomas Bach said last week that he had confidence
Tokyo would build the new stadium in time but the decision means
that the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which was also set to use the arena,
will have to find a new home.
Tokyo has already backed away from another pledge that helped it win
the hosting rights, that most of the venues will be located within 8
km of the Olympic Village, to save money by using pre-existing
venues.
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Amid a flurry of finger-pointing, a committee headed by Olympics
Minister Toshiaki Endo that also includes Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yoshihide Suga met for the first time on Tuesday to tackle the
issue.
A general list of key points needed in the new stadium, along with a
rough estimate of costs, would be drawn up over the next few months,
with a competition to choose a new design set for the autumn,
officials say.
A decision should come by the end of the year, with construction set
to start in early 2016.
No cost targets have been set, though Suga has said it should be "as
cheap as possible."
Officials had agreed to build the stadium for 253 billion yen ($2.04
billion) just over a week before Abe's decision, up from 130 billion
yen in Tokyo's bid documents.
Mori said he was not at fault and that working to pull together a
new plan is more important at this point than assigning blame for
the woes involving the previous design, which he last week likened
to a "drooping raw oyster".
"Speaking honestly, I never liked the design," Mori said on
Wednesday. "But at that point it had already been decided and it was
not my place to speak."
(Additional reporting by Megumi Lim; Editing by John O'Brien)
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