IOC Olympic Games Exec Dir Christophe Dubi said on Thursday that venue switches for volleyball and rowing/canoe sprint "remain a possibility following meetings by a four-party, cost-cutting working group for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," according to KYODO. A decision on the venues "will be made at the end of the month" when the four parties -- the IOC, the 2020 organizing committee and the national and Tokyo metropolitan governments -- meet again. Referring to the potential relocation of the volleyball and rowing/canoe sites, after the working group ended three days of meetings at 2020 HQ, Dubi said, "The options remain. The purpose of this working group was not to decide; the purpose of the working was to study and ask further questions that will help fully clarify the situation for the benefit of all parties." With the Games' entire budget "said to be heading north" of 3T yen ($298B), the metropolitan government is considering moving the rowing/canoe outside of Tokyo to Miyagi Prefecture, and the volleyball from yet-to-be-built Ariake Arena to the existing Yokohama Arena. While the organizing committee has "balked at the city's ideas," put forth by Governor Yuriko Koike's handpicked review panel, the IOC "seems willing to listen." Dubi said that the proposals from Koike's team were "welcome" (KYODO, 11/3).
