The IOC has "urged Tokyo" to keep the costs for the 2020 Summer Games below $20B as the hosts "continue to grapple with ballooning expenses for the multi-sports event," according to Elaine Lies of REUTERS. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike "ordered a review of the budget." At an open meeting for a four-party working group that includes the IOC on Tuesday, Tokyo 2020 organizers vowed to keep costs below $20B but the Olympic authority "felt even that ceiling was too high." IOC VP John Coates said, "The IOC has not agreed to that amount of money. We believe the Games can be delivered for significantly less than that." He added that the IOC would "sit down with Tokyo officials to discuss further cuts." Among proposals discussed were those made by the Tokyo government to move rowing and canoe/kayak sprint events to an existing course 400km north of Tokyo, and "using older facilities in the capital for volleyball and swimming." Koike, who became governor in August, told the meeting that "due to the high cost of refurbishing the existing rowing venue, Tokyo had decided to stick with plans to build a new one in the capital." As for volleyball, she proposed using an existing venue in the neighboring city of Yokohama and asked to "have until Christmas to make a final decision -- a request to which the group agreed" (REUTERS, 11/29). KYODO reported Koike said that her team "needed more time to review the pros and cons of hosting the volleyball in either the yet-to-be-built Ariake Arena or the existing Yokohama Arena." Coates said, "We think we're in a good stage here, but I don't want to let the international media have the impression that the costs of running the Games in a city like Tokyo, where you have so many existing venues, is $20 billion. It is not, and there will be significant savings to be found." Christophe Dubi, the IOC's exec director of the Olympic Games, said that coming up with a plan for Yokohama Arena by next month that covers all tracks "will take an enormous amount of work, and is a highly irregular task less than four years away from the actual event." He said, "If the decision is to go to Yokohama, we have to make sure all agreements are in place so we do not meet any hurdles that would prevent us to use the venue down the road" (KYODO, 11/29).
