The IOC is looking at "various areas to cut costs for hosting the Games" including the "level of service" in Olympic villages, IOC VP John Coates told Tokyo 2020 organizers on Tuesday, according to Chris Gallagher of REUTERS. Coates said that the IOC contacted 28 major national Olympic committees "for their feedback by the end of this month." He added, "We are putting a number of questions to those national Olympic committees as to how we think we can find savings by reducing, to an acceptable level, the level of service in the Olympic village." Tokyo organizers have been "working to slash costs" after a study last year warned expenses "could balloon to four times the initial estimate" made during the bid process. Coates said that the IOC would share the responses of the NOCs with its athletes' commission. Coates: "NOCs might receive some financial compensation to give up some beds, they might receive some compensation in return for more transferable accreditations for their support staff, those things. We have to be satisfied that there's no impact on the services for the athletes" (REUTERS, 10/2).
