# What happens if Japan cancels the Olympics? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** olympic-sports-track\ **Created:** [May 27, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038 "2021-05-27T14:24:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/21 "2021-05-27T17:26:04Z")
I’ve read that if there is no more postponing of the Olympics and that if they don’t go off this summer, they don’t go off at all, and Japan is immediately shunted into the pool of applicants with absolutely no advantage to any future hosting. Thus, they’d have done everything for absolutely nothing. I’ve also read that there’s a game of chicken going on between the IOC and Japanese government, because whoever does the actual cancelling would be on the hook for the majority of the costs. So if all that is true, I’m not holding my breath for a cancellation. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/22 "2021-05-27T17:36:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > You also need really advanced broadcast facilities and _thousands_ of available hotel rooms. That sounds like you just described Las Vegas 😜. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/23 "2021-05-27T17:37:09Z")
I don’t think Las Vegas has the athletic facilities, though. Los Angeles sounds like it might work. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/24 "2021-05-27T18:06:26Z")
Surfing would definitely be a problem, and soccer likely so. Between the facilities at UNLV, the new stadium the Raiders just had built, and a few other local facilities, however, I think they could manage all the other events. The marathon might not be the most pleasant experience, but it could be done. At least it would be a dry heat 🤪. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/25 "2021-05-27T18:35:05Z")
If we assume an Olympics that no spectators are permitted to attend, where it’s just athletes, officials, support staff, and media, then a lot of events can be held in warehouses and convention centers. Which Vegas has a lot of. Heck, you could scatter an Olympics like that all across the USA, holding e.g. the marathon where there is an appropriate course and weather, do lots of the indoor stuff in Vegas, surf in Hawaii, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/26 "2021-05-27T18:45:25Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Heck, you could scatter an Olympics like that all across the USA, holding e.g. the marathon where there is an appropriate course and weather, do lots of the indoor stuff in Vegas, surf in Hawaii, etc. FWIW, that’s what Japan had planned to do. The marathon, which was originally planned for Tokyo, was moved 500 miles north to Hokkaido so it could take place in a more mild climate. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/27 "2021-05-27T20:44:51Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > That sounds like you just described Las Vegas 😜. Please God no. There’s enough idiocy on I-215 already. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/28 "2021-05-27T20:49:08Z")
Hmmm. I would have thought that Las Vegas would be one of the few places where arrival of an IOC delegation would actually raise the moral standard of the place. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/29 "2021-05-27T20:53:20Z")
Our _de facto_ mayor is a term-limited mafia lawyer. I’d rather have that asshole in charge than put up with the economic and political disaster that every Olympics has been. I have no idea why countries and cities still sign up for this shit. I enjoy watching the Olympics on TV sometimes but I sure as shit don’t want to live there. ETA: Since this is GQ, I feel compelled to point out that the Tokyo Olympics have been cancelled before. They were originally supposed to host it in 1940. (The reason for the cancellation is left as an exercise for the reader.) ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/30 "2021-05-27T20:57:21Z")
Another option that I’m sure would never fly would be to split the Olympics up among several countries. If they’re going to be closed to international spectators anyway, there’s no real need to have all the sports in the same physical location. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/31 "2021-05-27T21:00:19Z")
[Interesting thread on the subject](https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/63807/does-the-japanese-government-not-have-the-authority-to-cancel-the-olympics) on StackExchange. It focuses on the legal and contractual aspects, including the fact that Tokyo, the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Olympic Games Organizing Committee have all signed contracts renouncing their right to immunity against lawsuits by the IOC. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/32 "2021-05-27T21:15:38Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > [Interesting thread on the subject](https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/63807/does-the-japanese-government-not-have-the-authority-to-cancel-the-olympics) on StackExchange. This is what I was going to mention. One interesting thing is that it is the city of Tokyo, not the Japanese government, that is the party to the contract. If the Japanese government suspends the games, then Tokyo would try to assert they weren’t allowed to run the games. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/33 "2021-05-27T21:19:53Z")
> [@borschevsky](#): > > Another option that I’m sure would never fly would be to split the Olympics up among several countries. If they’re going to be closed to international spectators anyway, there’s no real need to have all the sports in the same physical location. Actually, no, the IOC is cool with splitting the games among countries or at least now it is. One of the ideas for the upcoming Winter Games was, I think, to split it between Norway and Sweden, but both countries balked at the insane cost. (And given that both countries are big on winter sports, that should tell you something about how unsustainable the whole system is. I think in the end the only two places that wanted the 2022 Winter Games were Beijing or Kazakhstan, neither of which is a democracy.) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/34 "2021-05-27T21:20:44Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > They should take this as an opportunity to make one permanent Olympic site. Forget this bribery and corruption infested selection process, take out the politics. Just have one permanent site for summer and one for winter games. It doesn’t actually have to be Greece. Actually, we should do the opposite. Make the Olympics global, and hold different events in different countries, but coordinate them and broadcast them as one event. So instead of bidding on ‘the Olympics’, countries would bid to hold a certain sport or group of related sports. This would be great for smaller countries that don’t have the infrastructure to host all the games, it would lower the risk of giant economic damage to host cities, it would give the telecasts more diversity and allow us to see more countries, etc. Centralizing the Olympics made sense when communications and transportation were more primitive. With a global, instant media system there’s no reason why you couldn’t package the olympic feeds from many countries into a single global broadcast. To accomodate athletes who compete in more than one event, you’d probably have to group them. So all track and field in one country, all swimming in another, etc. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > These facilities exist all over the world for training and regional competitions. They may not be up the level as facilities built for an Olympic games but they would serve if needed. You could probably go to a normal college campus and find the facilities you’d need to carry out Olympic competitions. For some events, yes. For others, not so much. There have been many complaints in the past about the increasingly specialized facilities needed for some Olympic sports which go unused after the Olympics are over. Indoor speed ovals for cycling and speed skating, luge tracks for winter Olympics, etc. And even more common facilities are often more than what can be sustained after the Olympics are gone. Almost all the facilities used in the 2004 Greece Olympics are now derelict. Many of the facilities in the 2016 Rio Olympics are now unmaintained and falling apart. The famous Birds’ Nest stadium in Beijing now sits completely unused, yet incurs millions of dollars in upkeep costs. Cities are also often required to build out general infrastructure like hotel rooms, airport capacity and road capacity to handle the games, then discover that they are overbuilt and expensive to maintain after the Olympics are gone. For these and other reasons, many former Olympic hosts are still suffering economic pain as a result of hosting the Olympics. The mystery is why they keep bidding for the Olympics - but that is changing. More and more we’re seeing large cities simply withdraw from bidding when they look at the costs. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/35 "2021-05-27T21:22:52Z")
And in 1956, when the Summer Games were in Melbourne, the equestrian events were held in Stockhom because of the quarantine laws for horses in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/36 "2021-05-27T21:33:42Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Our _de facto_ mayor is a term-limited mafia lawyer. I’d rather have that asshole in charge than put up with the economic and political disaster that every Olympics has been. Sorry, I was joking. Though this admission may get me in trouble with the mods. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/37 "2021-05-27T21:35:49Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The famous Birds’ Nest stadium in Beijing now sits completely unused, yet incurs millions of dollars in upkeep costs. It’s not completely unused, it hosts about 10 or so events a year and the rest of the time, it’s a surprisingly popular tourist destination. It’ll also host events for the 2022 Winter Olympics. According to Chinese sources, the tourist revenue alone is enough to pay for maintenance and keep it profitable. Other Olympic venues have decayed but the Birds Nest and the Water Cube are still active. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/38 "2021-05-27T21:43:55Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Actually, we should do the opposite. Make the Olympics global, and hold different events in different countries, but coordinate them and broadcast them as one event. So instead of bidding on ‘the Olympics’, countries would bid to hold a certain sport or group of related sports. This would be great for smaller countries that don’t have the infrastructure to host all the games, it would lower the risk of giant economic damage to host cities, it would give the telecasts more diversity and allow us to see more countries, etc. I imagine ratings would plummet. I mean, all of these sports have various world championships with ratings that pale in comparison to the Olympics. Part of the draw is “hey, we’re getting ALL of the wrold’s best athletes in one location and we’ll have a crazy opening ceremony about the country.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/39 "2021-05-27T21:52:20Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > For some events, yes. For others, not so much. There have been many complaints in the past about the increasingly specialized facilities needed for some Olympic sports which go unused after the Olympics are over. Indoor speed ovals for cycling and speed skating, luge tracks for winter Olympics, etc. And even more common facilities are often more than what can be sustained after the Olympics are gone. Almost all the facilities used in the 2004 Greece Olympics are now derelict. Many of the facilities in the 2016 Rio Olympics are now unmaintained and falling apart. The famous Birds’ Nest stadium in Beijing now sits completely unused, yet incurs millions of dollars in upkeep costs. But again, I’m making a distinction between facilities that were designed as an Olympic showcase and less glamorous facilities that perform the same function. Hundreds of athletes are planning on going to Tokyo to participate in competitions. All of them have been training at facilities and competing at other events that follow the same regulations that govern the Olympic facilities. I mentioned swimming pools as an example. A competitive swimming pool is huge; they’re fifty meters long, twenty-five meters wide, and two meters deep. Nobody has a pool like this in the backyard. But they’re not unique. They’re not building a special pool that size in Tokyo just for the Olympic games. Athletes planning on competing at Tokyo are not swimming in their backyard. They’re all training in regulation sized pools. I just googled this (yes, the internet has everything). There’s two regulation fifty-meter pools near me; one at a college and one at a high school. The same is true about facilities like tracks and gyms. And even specialized facilities used for more exotic sports. There are athletes competing in these sports all over the world and they’re doing it in local facilities. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038/40 "2021-05-27T23:00:38Z")
> **[One year after Rio: What's left behind after the flame goes out](http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/20292414/the-reality-post-olympic-rio)** > > The 2016 Summer Games were supposed to bring Rio and Brazil to new financial and athletic heights. What's left behind? A city and country shrouded by corruption, debt and broken promises. > [@](#): > > While 15 of the original 27 venues have hosted some sort of event since the Games, others sit largely abandoned, their decay and disrepair a constant reminder of what was meant to be. Even the iconic soccer stadium, the Maracanã, has been vandalized, and had its power shut off completely after amassing a $950,000 electric bill. > > Deodoro Olympic Park, long hailed by Brazilian politicians and Olympic proponents as a path to upgrade one of Rio’s poorer neighborhoods, is shuttered. The community pool that was supposed to come out of the canoe slalom course was closed in December and has yet to re-open. Brazil’s Federal Court of Audit (TCU) reported last week that another abandoned pool, at the Deodoro Aquatics Center, is now covered in bugs, mud and rodent feces. A Deodoro elevator once used to lift fans over a busy road now leads to nowhere. > > Ten miles away at the Olympic Park, things aren’t much better. Earlier this month a fire from a flying lantern torched the roof of the Rio velodrome, badly damaging its Siberian Pine track. After the Games, the city solicited bids for private companies to run the park, but no one bid, leaving Brazil’s Ministry of Sport with the task – and expense. The maintenance alone will cost the government approximately $14 million this year. Rio’s new mayor, Marcelo Crivella, has scrapped plans to turn the handball arena into four public schools. And the 31 towers that made up the athletes village, which were set to be transformed into luxury condos, now sit largely vacant. That’s only four years after the Rio Olympics. Almost half of the venues are shuttered. They gad to cut their health care and police budgets to cover the costs. And it’s just not true tgat these specialized facilities are everywhere. Athletes that need such facilities routinely travel to train. Maintaining a Velodrome is very expensive, and there is very little commercial demand gor an Olympic level Velodrome in most places. You chose swimming pools as an example, but you picked the one facility type that has widespread public use. [https://howtheyplay.com/olympics/AbandonedOlympicVenues](https://howtheyplay.com/olympics/AbandonedOlympicVenues) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-japan-cancels-the-olympics/943038.md?page=3)