One “legacy” from the Tokyo Summer Olympics will likely be the newly built venues eating billions of yen in taxpayers’ money for years to come.

These facilities were supposed to generate economic gains through usage fees following 2020 Summer Games.

But annual maintenance costs will exceed the revenue coming in from such use.

Five of these six facilities are predicted to produce a total annual deficit of about 1 billion yen ($882,000). The impact from the novel coronavirus pandemic is expected to worsen the deficit.

The Tokyo metropolitan government, at the behest of the International Olympic Committee, invested huge sums to build six permanent facilities for the Games.

Only Ariake Arena, where the volleyball events were held, is expected to create a post-Olympic annual surplus, of 356 million yen.

The biggest deficit is expected at the Tokyo Aquatics Center, an Olympic venue for swimming and other events.

The center is located 2.5 kilometers east of the Toyosu Market and stands on a corner of an area that overlooks high-rise condominiums in the Rinkai waterfront district in Tokyo.

An annual deficit of 638 million yen is expected at the facility.

Just around the corner, within 500 meters, is the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center.

Although it is a top-tier swimming venue where Kosuke Kitajima broke the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke in 2008, it wasn’t good enough for the IOC.

The facility failed to meet one of the IOC’s conditions as an Olympic swimming venue and apparently had too few seats for what ended up as a largely spectator-free Olympic Games.

The Tatsumi center was instead used for water polo events during the Summer Games under the name of Tatsumi Water Polo Center.

The metropolitan government plans to turn the Tatsumi facility into an ice skating rink to prevent an overlap of services offered between the two international-level facilities in the same vicinity.

The renovated facility is expected to open in fiscal 2025. The renovation cost is estimated at about 4.4 billion yen.

‘TAX-BURDEN DOMINO EFFECT’

The metropolitan government has explained that the deficits from these Olympic venues represent “an investment in promoting sports.”

But a consultant at a think tank said organizers of the sports event failed to keep their promise of holding a “compact” Tokyo Olympics, and the result has been “a tax-burden domino effect.”

Sea Forest Waterway was built in the waterfront district at a cost of 30.3 billion yen for canoe events at the Tokyo Olympics.

It is expected to run an annual deficit of 158 million yen.

An unexpected factor—oysters—could exacerbate the red ink.

Oysters attached themselves to a device that buffers against waves at the facility, and their weight caused the device to sink.

The cost of removing those oysters was 140 million yen. But there is a whole ocean of oysters out there, and additional expenses related to the problem could surface.

A worker at a maintenance agency said Tokyo officials lacked foresight.

Oysters attaching themselves to such a device is natural and “should have been no surprise,” the worker said.

FUTURE OF NEW NATIONAL STADIUM?

The main Olympic venue, the New National Stadium, and its surroundings were built at a cost of 156.9 billion yen.

Its annual maintenance cost is estimated at 2.4 billion yen, but the future use of the stadium has yet to be determined.

The central government wants to use a “concession agreement” to sell exclusive rights to operate the facility to a private company.

But an intentions survey on private businesses that may be interested in the stadium has yet to begin in full.

Some industry insiders pointed out that the stadium, which does not have a roof or air conditioning, is not user-friendly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the uncertainty in calculating revenues and expenditures for the stadium.

One individual connected to a bank that has provided loans for concession agreements said, “We cannot extend loans without a reasonable business prospect that includes the risk of infectious diseases.”

One major company is rumored to be in the running to operate the National Stadium.

However, a senior executive of the company said: “We have bigger problems now. If we get an offer, we will not even consider it.”

A source with the central government said it will “make a decision while checking the intentions of private businesses.”

A senior official of another company believed to have been approached by the government about operating the stadium said, “I want the central government to present its direction first.”

Regarding the necessary cost for renovations, the official said, “If the central government doesn’t shoulder it, the price of the rights to operate the stadium that we will pay to the government will be cheaper.”

(This article was written by Shuhei Shibata and Yoshitaka Ito.)