“Those numbers in the bidding file are almost fiction,” said Shinichi Ueyama, a Japanese public policy expert who led a Tokyo government investigation into the Olympics’ cost. The price tag on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has ballooned to nearly twice the initial estimate, even after a major cost-cutting effort. Tokyo Olympic organizers said this week that the estimated cost is now $17 billion. The cost of the 2012 London Olympics tripled from a bid estimate of $8.7 billion to $25 billion. “We believe further cost reductions are still possible.”Under a cost-allocation agreement announced Wednesday, the city of Tokyo and the Tokyo organizing committee will shoulder $7.3 billion each.

Source: thestar June 02, 2017 16:52 UTC