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Japan unable to commit to IOC’s deadline for Tokyo 2020 stadium
• Official said troubled Olympic stadium needs to be ready by January 2020
• Japan’s Olympics minister replies: ‘We have no idea if it’s doable’
Japan’s Olympics minister Toshiaki Endo says the original deadline of April 2020 was already a tight schedule for completion of Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium. Photograph: Etsuo Hara/Getty Images
Tuesday 25 August 2015
Japan is unable to guarantee it will meet an International Olympic Committee deadline to complete work on the new national stadium in time for the 2020 Games, according to the country’s Olympics minister. A top IOC official has urged Japan to speed up the troubled construction of Tokyo’s showpiece for delivery by January 2020.
That gives Japan three months less than the planned April 2020 handover. However, Japan’s Olympics minister Toshiaki Endo indicated that it may not be possible.
The IOC vice-president John Coates said that he asked Japan’s senior Olympic officials to meet the deadline in order to run a series of tests before the Games open in August 2020.
He said: “The stadium has to be available for ceremonies and rehearsals,” Coates said. “They need to have the handover to the organising committee by January 2020.”
Endo, who was appointed to the post two months ago, said it may be difficult to meet that target because April was already a tight deadline. He said it was a “heavy request” that he could not accept immediately.
“It was going to be April on a very tight schedule,” Endo said. “I cannot easily say yes to January 2020. I can only ask contractors to finish the construction as quickly as possible. We have no idea if it’s doable.”
Coates said the IOC did not request an 80,000 capacity, the size Japan had set for the earlier design.
That design, by the London-based architect Zaha Hadid, was scrapped in July following a public outcry over the ¥252bn (£1.3bn) price tag that was nearly double the original estimate and would have made it the most expensive sports stadium ever built. Last month Hadid claimed rising construction costs, as opposed to the design itself, had been responsible for the escalating figure.
Earlier this month, Japan approved guidelines for its new Olympic stadium, vowing to build an athlete-friendly stadium as cheaply as possible, and Endo said he hoped to keep the cost of the revised stadium below ¥200bn (£1.05bn).
• Official said troubled Olympic stadium needs to be ready by January 2020
• Japan’s Olympics minister replies: ‘We have no idea if it’s doable’
Japan’s Olympics minister Toshiaki Endo says the original deadline of April 2020 was already a tight schedule for completion of Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium. Photograph: Etsuo Hara/Getty Images
Tuesday 25 August 2015
Japan is unable to guarantee it will meet an International Olympic Committee deadline to complete work on the new national stadium in time for the 2020 Games, according to the country’s Olympics minister. A top IOC official has urged Japan to speed up the troubled construction of Tokyo’s showpiece for delivery by January 2020.
That gives Japan three months less than the planned April 2020 handover. However, Japan’s Olympics minister Toshiaki Endo indicated that it may not be possible.
The IOC vice-president John Coates said that he asked Japan’s senior Olympic officials to meet the deadline in order to run a series of tests before the Games open in August 2020.
He said: “The stadium has to be available for ceremonies and rehearsals,” Coates said. “They need to have the handover to the organising committee by January 2020.”
Endo, who was appointed to the post two months ago, said it may be difficult to meet that target because April was already a tight deadline. He said it was a “heavy request” that he could not accept immediately.
“It was going to be April on a very tight schedule,” Endo said. “I cannot easily say yes to January 2020. I can only ask contractors to finish the construction as quickly as possible. We have no idea if it’s doable.”
Coates said the IOC did not request an 80,000 capacity, the size Japan had set for the earlier design.
That design, by the London-based architect Zaha Hadid, was scrapped in July following a public outcry over the ¥252bn (£1.3bn) price tag that was nearly double the original estimate and would have made it the most expensive sports stadium ever built. Last month Hadid claimed rising construction costs, as opposed to the design itself, had been responsible for the escalating figure.
Earlier this month, Japan approved guidelines for its new Olympic stadium, vowing to build an athlete-friendly stadium as cheaply as possible, and Endo said he hoped to keep the cost of the revised stadium below ¥200bn (£1.05bn).
