Tokyo Olympics organizers to lose millions of dollars due to lost ticket sales

Last week it was informed that there will be no fans allowed in Tokyo during the Olympic Games because the city is under a new state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last Wednesday, Tokyo reported 920 new covid-19 cases, which is an increase from the 714 that were reported a week before.

Organizers face million dollar loss from lost ticket sales

With the decision of not allowing fans during the campaign, the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee could lose up to $815 million due to lost ticket sales. According to multiple reports, it is unlikely that they will recover most of the money lost through the insurance because the organizing committee used most of their event cancellation policy on postponement costs last year at the peak of the pandemic.

"Taking into consideration the effect of coronavirus variants and not to let the infections spread again to the rest of the nation, we need to strengthen our countermeasures," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, according to the BBC. "Given the situation, we will issue a state of emergency for Tokyo."

According to the latest report, Japan has had 810,000 coronavirus cases and 14,900 have died. Only 15 percent of the population in the country is fully vaccinated according to AP and some events outside of the city of Tokyo will have fans in attendance at a limited capacity. Last December the organizers said that the entire cost of the Olympic Games would be around $15.4 billion.