The rowing and canoeing venue for the 2020 Olympics should either be moved to a site hundreds of miles away in northern Japan "or downgraded to a temporary facility in Tokyo, a city government cost-cutting panel said Tuesday," according to Mari Yamaguchi of the AP. The recommendation came as officials of the IOC, Tokyo's city government and other key parties "gathered to review the cost of the games." In a final report presented to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, the panel said that "another option is to stick with the original plans for the Sea Forest venue in Tokyo Bay but to find ways of cutting the costs." On Tuesday, the panel of academics and business consultants hand-picked by Koike said that "moving to Naganuma would be the most cost-efficient solution." The relocated venue would require up to 20B yen ($190M) "in construction costs to meet Olympic standards." Additional costs related to security, transportation and other infrastructure "could add up further." An earlier cost estimate for the Naganuma site was 35B yen ($330M) (AP, 11/1). KYODO reported the IOC, the 2020 organizing committee and the Japanese central and Tokyo governments "hope to reach some kind of conclusion by the end of the month, in time for the arrival of the IOC coordination commission scheduled for the beginning of December, followed by an executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland." For the new aquatics center for swimming, to be constructed in the same neighborhood as the existing Tatsumi Int'l Swimming Center, the city put forth two plans, a 20,000-seater and a 15,000-seater, and "decided against the original idea of reducing seating after the Games." Koike's team "made two suggestions for the volleyball" -- Ariake Arena, which will be built from scratch, and Yokohama Arena, which is already in current use (KYODO, 11/1).
