IOC President Thomas Bach said Thursday that "the overall costs for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics can be kept down" to $15B, according to KYODO. At a meeting last week in Tokyo of a four-party working group reviewing the budget for the Games, the 2020 organizing committee said it will try to keep costs under $20B. Bach said that "organizers could save a further" $5B. He added, "Before this (working group) started, we had reached savings of about $2 billion. The first figure which has been published for the overall was $30 billion, and now we are already at $20 billion." Bach said that even the figure of $15B "could prove too high." Bach: "We think that in this investment of $15 billion can be reduced and we will see where the IOC and the international federations can make their contribution to come to a feasible and sustainable approach." The working group will confer again via teleconference on Dec. 21, when the location of the volleyball venue is expected to be decided. The two options that remain for volleyball are to build a new Ariake Arena near Tokyo Bay, or to use the existing Yokohama Arena (KYODO, 12/9).
