Tokyo Olympics ... [no foreign fans] [no fans period]

[Conor Dary]

Just delay the Olympics until the fall....can't believe empty stadiums and a state of emergency are what NBC had in mind...

[runningforpi]

Just delay the Olympics until the fall....can't believe empty stadiums and a state of emergency are what NBC had in mind...

I feel like this would be a reasonable option, but for the athletes. Wouldn’t this be difficult as they have been training in order to peak in the next 4ish weeks?

[NotDutra5]

Just delay the Olympics until the fall....can't believe empty stadiums and a state of emergency are what NBC had in mind...

We just had the 4 major sports go through playoffs and championship games with little to no spectators including the Super Bowl and NBC isn't going to want the Olympics going up against the NFL, World Series, etc in October.

Not everyone is sitting there thinking about the pandemic as the final of the 100m is lining up or....perhaps more importantly....as the women's all around is being conducted in Gymnastics.

[Conor Dary]

Viewership was way down when there was no one in the stands...

Conventional wisdom, seemingly in concert with common sense, suggested that sports television viewership would expand during the pandemic once the leagues returned to action.

We were all stuck at home, missing familiar pastimes, and board games with the family can get boring pretty fast. It seemed logical that when live sports came back after the March 2020 shutdown — baseball in July, the NBA later that month, then the NHL in August — fans would watch in droves.

So much for conventional wisdom.

Ratings couldn’t have tanked more if we’d all simultaneously lost our remote controls. World Series ratings were down 36 percent over the previous year. NBA Finals ratings were down 51 percent. The Stanley Cup Final was down 61 percent. Individual sports fared no better. The Masters, played in November rather than April, was down 49 percent.

https://www.boston.com/sports/tv/2021/02/21/why-arent-people-watching-sports-tv-ratings/

[steve]

We just had the 4 major sports go through playoffs and championship games with little to no spectators including the Super Bowl and NBC isn't going to want the Olympics going up against the NFL, World Series, etc in October.

Not everyone is sitting there thinking about the pandemic as the final of the 100m is lining up or....perhaps more importantly....as the women's all around is being conducted in Gymnastics.

I know it sound a little pie-in-the-sky, but the Olympics were as much about the world coming together to celebrate through competition; more so than just the competition and results. With no spectators, and athletes having to leave soon after competition, that element of a harmonious world celebration is gone from the start.

I’m with Conor Dary on this, postpone them until the fall, or cancel altogether. When you know you have a potentially deadly virus, it seems like a bad idea to have an event that could increase the spread and death toll, or one that doesn’t embrace it’s intended spirit.

[gm]

Sorry that there will be no spectators, but they kept their promise to pull this off in the safest manner they could, and the Olympians very much appreciate that, while sad that there will be no crowd to perform for.

There will be a very important crowd, actually, as there always is -- TV eyes. Unless you're a "hometown hero" it doesn't really matter who is actually in the stands during an Olympic Games. Your marketing ability is based on how many people saw you on the vidyuh box.

[Conor Dary]

Financially it has been a disaster for Japan...

Japan's latest coronavirus state of emergency covering Tokyo, declared by the government Thursday, could cost the economy around 1 trillion yen ($9.1 billion), according to economists' estimates.

The government's decision to place the Japanese capital under a fourth state of emergency and extend an emergency in the southern island prefecture of Okinawa will cut private consumption by 1.2 trillion yen, said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/07/c6c7fe8d29cd-japans-fresh-virus-emergency-to-cost-economy-1-tril-yen.html

[Conor Dary]

"If the emergency is further extended and expanded, the economic losses could outstrip the benefits of a behind-closed-doors Olympic Games," Kiuchi said.

[CookyMonzta]

That didn't work....

Sure didn't. And I can't imagine NBC being any happier about it, either. They're just as obsessed with their bottom line as the IOC, and the sight of empty arenas on every TV set in the Americas will be just as much a PR dystopia for them as it is for the IOC. Any way you look at it, there will be many books written about this fiasco in the making; much worse if someone dies from the Delta or Lambda variant anywhere on the Olympic campus; even far worse if an athlete or coach dies.

[Atticus]

I also think there's been a generational/cultural shift away from big-ticket sports. My HS kids were far less interested in MLB/NFL/NBA/Wimbledon/Masters/Olympic events than my or even my kids' generation. There's too much streaming content that attracts their eyes. Same with going to movie theaters; it's just not a big deal any more. That said, music concerts didn't skip a beat (pun!).

[Conor Dary]

Sure didn't. And I can't imagine NBC being any happier about it, either. They're just as obsessed with their bottom line as the IOC, and the sight of empty arenas on every TV set in the Americas will be just as much a PR dystopia for them as it is for the IOC. Any way you look at it, there will be many books written about this fiasco in the making; much worse if someone dies from the Delta or Lambda variant anywhere on the Olympic campus; even far worse if an athlete or coach dies.

It was obvious a year delay wouldn't work on a world wide event in a country with a history of vaccine phobia...and there wasn't even a vaccine a year ago. It all seemed based on a hope and a promise....a 2 year delay would have been the way to go. With the WCs in Eugene this year as planned. Now that option is off the table.

I still wouldn't be surprised if they cancel them altogether next week.

[steve]

I still wouldn't be surprised if they cancel them altogether next week.

That would be the best decision, but where there are dollars and reputations at stake, good decision making often goes out the window; something that landed them in this spot this year.

[Conor Dary]

That would be the best decision, but where there are dollars and reputations at stake, good decision making often goes out the window; something that landed them in this spot this year.

With the lockdown losses it would be cheaper for Japan to just cancel.

[steve]

With the lockdown losses it would be cheaper for Japan to just cancel.

Knowing that it is cheaper and much safer to cancel , it seems unjustifiable to continue.

[Conor Dary]

Financial Times..

Proceeding with no fans is likely to mean that the organisers will need a taxpayer bailout to refund ticket holders.

The renewed emergency declaration means that the Tokyo public will be urged to stay at home even as the International Olympic Committee holds the world’s biggest sporting event in their streets and stadiums.

The IOC has insisted that the games must go ahead during a state of emergency. Under the new rules, no fans will be allowed in Tokyo and the neighbouring prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama. Some spectators will be permitted at events, such as football and baseball, in other parts of the country.

Suga said: “The number [of people infected with Covid] who are seriously ill and the utilisation of hospital beds are still low, but taking into account the effect of variants, we must act to prevent another ripple of infections across the country.”

Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of Japan’s Covid-19 response, described the situation as a “race between vaccination and the spread of the Delta variant”.