Japan bans fans at Tokyo-area Olympics venues due to virus

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and STEPHEN WADE

TOKYO (AP) — Fans will be banned from Tokyo-area stadiums and arenas when the Olympics begin in two weeks, the city’s governor said Thursday after meeting with organizers of the pandemic-postponed games.

That means the Olympics will be a largely TV-only event, after the Japanese government put the capital under a COVID-19 state of emergency because of rising new infections and the highly contagious delta variant.

The declaration was made by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and the spectator ban was agreed to by Japanese Olympic organizers, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, and the metropolitan government of Tokyo.

It was a serious blow for Japanese taxpayers and local organizers of the games, which already had been postponed from 2020 by the coronavirus. Hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket revenue will be lost, and that must be made up by the government. Fans also have endured months of uncertainty about whether the Olympics will go ahead.



International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach (on-screen) and Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto, left, wave at the beginning of the five-party meeting in Tokyo, Thursday, July 8, 2021. (Behrouz Mehri/Pool Photo via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-lifestyle-health-coronavirus-pandemic-olympic-games-5fe54df9b5c06abbc54a633cbd0d907e

[Effete Snob]

1. Wow, I was planning to go and smoke a lot of weed

[PSPS]

2. "a serious blow for Japanese taxpayers"

It was a serious blow for Japanese taxpayers and local organizers of the games, which already had been postponed from 2020 by the coronavirus. Hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket revenue will be lost, and that must be made up by the government. Fans also have endured months of uncertainty about whether the Olympics will go ahead.

That's rich. The olympics are always "a serious blow for taxpayers" with or without "fans." But the IOC fat cats in Lausanne will still make their billions of dollars, so, it's all good!!1111!!!

[rpannier]

3. It's unfortunate but necessary

Living in Japan, we were planning on going to a few of the events
I feel badly for the businesses
The government should have just cancelled it end of 2020

[regnaD kciN]

4. Frankly, the IOC should have cancelled it...

...and then moved up each city in the queue four years, so Tokyo would have gotten it in 2024 and so on.

[melm00se]

6. But that punishes the athletes

as their window to be competitive in many sports at this level is really narrow.

[Owl]

5. Unfortunate, but the right thing to do.