TOKYO, JAPAN - JULY 08: Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks during a press conference at ... [+]
After months of gyrations and backflips, any hopes that the Tokyo Olympics could stick the landing collapsed in a heap on the floor Thursday when officials announced that spectators would be barred from the events due to COVID-19 concerns. The Olympics, which commence on July 23, were already delayed for a year. The sudden emergency announcement from tearful Japanese officials Thursday has titanic economic repercussions for the entire ecosystem of venues, broadcasters and sponsors who have shelled out more than $1.2 billion to NBCUniversal alone.
The first-order casualty of the ban is that venues in Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama will miss out on a projected 90 billion yen (US $819 million) in ticketing revenue from the games. Japan had already closed the Olympics to foreign visitors, including family members of athletes, back in March. Now even domestic fans will not be able to attend indoor events, contravening an announcement last month, and are being discouraged from lining the roads to cheer for contestants in the Marathon or bicycle road races.
Concerns about the viability of the 2021 Olympics had been mounting for months as Japan’s initial vaccine rollout got off to a slow start, lagging far behind the United States, UK, EU countries and its Asian neighbors. Though Japan is now vaccinating nearly 1 million people per day, it has not been enough to get out in front of the highly-contagious Delta variant. Tokyo recently went into its fourth shutdown as cases spiked upward toward 1000 per day. In May, a petition to cancel the Games to prevent further spread of the disease garnered more than 350,000 signatures.
The emergency edict announced Thursday by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga surely came as unwelcome news to NBCUniversal and other broadcasters around the world who have bet big on the Summer Olympics as a global celebration of grit in the face of adversity. Instead, the spectacle of athletes competing in empty stadiums will remind the world of the worst days of 2020 and could sap even the most dramatic events of the intensity that crowds provide.
NBC put on a brave face, announcing in a statement yesterday that “We’re disappointed that there won’t be spectators at the events, but we’ve long had plans for enhancing the viewing experience across our many platforms. We’ve had a lot of experience with events without spectators throughout the pandemic. Although unfortunate, this won’t diminish the incredible stories and achievements of the athletes from Team USA and around the world.”
Last year, the NBA and NHL finals played in empty arenas and chalked up the lowest television ratings in decades, and that was when we were all stuck inside desperate for entertainment. With vaccinated Americans and others around the world outside celebrating the “Hot COVID Summer,” how many will tune in to watch this year’s summer games?
The only thing we can now say for sure is that it will be more than can attend in person.
TOPSHOT - An athlete competes in the 800m test event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in the National ... [+]
