Has money really ever stopped anyone before? We have just 5 years left before the Olympic games in Japan take place and Japan is scrapping the plan for their main Olympic stadium because it's too expensive. Granted, it will be the most expensive stadium ever built, but you're looking at what could become one of the largest, best looking, and more importantly, one of the most used stadiums in the future. In fact, it was believed that the stadium could house regular sporting events for up to 100 years without major renovations.

Right now, the most expensive stadium in the world is MetLife Stadium which costs 1.6 Billion dollars, while The National Stadium costs more than 2 billion, and that's after already scrapping plans for a retractable roof and decreasing the size from 71 acres to 52 acres.

They are already feeling the pain of the scrapping, because now they have to rebid for a new architect which also means that the stadium will be ready by the 2020 Olympics, which means that the 2019 Rugby World Cup needs to be moved.

The stadium is going to lose a ton of money for that already, and what's the point really? Completely scraping something that was already in place and firing the architects just because it will cost an extra hundred million? Heck, with all possible seating options, the stadium will house only 2000 fans less than MetLife, and will also host multiple sports, so really when you are comparing the cost to size and use, it's not much different, and could even be better.

Thoughts?

Too expensive? Come on, they almost literally BOUGHT the 2020 Olympics by talking money, what's this fuss about??

The worst thing is that they noticed now. It has been two years since they were selected as the host, didn't they realize before?

I don't really understand. I know that Japan is weird, but not weird this way. Makes no sense at all.

EX Palen : When they scrapped the roof and about 30% of the size, was about a year ago. They should have just given up then if they knew something was up and they knew they weren't going to do anything about it.

EX Palen :
zanderlex :

A good friend of mine in Japan awhile back had sent me some stuff about peoples problem with this stadium.

The first being the fact that the design was made to look like a toilet. Which many people found hilariously bad. http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/7/9/8921553/tokyo-olympic-stadium-toilet-seat-lol-yeah-ok-i-see-it

The second being that the cost nearly DOUBLED from 1billion to 2 billion in production costs. At this point they are scrapping the plans with the Architect. Not that they started building the stadium or anything like that.

The main issue here being that people are worried about THAT MUCH public money being spent in order to build a stadium with no guarantee that there will be a return on that investment anytime soon. I also question the comment regarding 100 years of hosting regular events with minimal renovations. In this day and age it's not very common to have a stadium survive for more than 30 years. Very few have made it past that point. Japan is in the midst of a HUGE economic decline that is likely to have huge impacts on the global economy as a whole.

The difference between this stadium and stadiums like MetLife are that MetLife is guaranteed to have a team play season after season under contractual obligation. These olympic stadiums to not have such guarantees after the olympics leave.

You guys should ask the citizens of Montreal how they felt about the over 1.5 BILLION it cost them over 30 years to build the Olympic Stadium that took them over 30 years to pay off. A stadium that was built in 1976 I might add. Also a stadium that hasn't had a regular tenant since 2004. On average they made about 20 million a year. Over 30 years that doesn't even come close to covering the costs of construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Stadium_(Montreal)#Stadium_financing

Also, generally BILLIONS are spent on these Olympic venues and often times these venues are forgotten and abandoned not long after the Olympics leave. Making the promise of jobs and tax dollars an empty one.

I encourage you to read further into these facts -

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33563243
http://www.today.com/news/what-happens-olympic-venues-after-torch-goes-out-2D12152101
http://fortune.com/2015/02/26/japan-economic-time-bomb/
https://www.distractify.com/haunting-images-of-abandoned-olympic-venues-1197627259.html

Jordanv78 : Yeah, how to forget how Athens is barely 11 years after the Olympics were hosted...

I've been wondering for a bit, and Tokyo should at least have some remnants of the old 1960 Olympics. Wouldn't it be easier to expand those venues instead of building new ones? In this time, the city should have expanded enough to guarantee the venues are closer to the city than before. At least, that's what has occurred with Barcelona, in these 23 years the city has expanded to include the venues inside the city, while they were on the outskirts at the time.

Barcelona has indeed found a way to keep the venues alive. The Olympic Stadium was used by the second most important football (soccer) team of the city on several seasons, keeps hosting IAAF events, and also other events like the X Games have been hosted there and its surroundings. 

If the cost literally doubled, then I understand they scrap the idea. They must find a way to keep the venues useful, or otherwise they will fall in disgrace, meaning an awful lot of money has fallen into an empty void. As in Barcelona, it could be used by a team to play a full season, they should bid for more athletic events, they should search for something to put there because things will not come by themselves.

EX Palen : I believe one of the articles said they were going to build the new stadium over the old Olympic one.

Jordanv78 : Also, I don't think they should have gotten rid of the architect team. Couldn't they have just kept the same team and asked them to work on a new design with a different set of guidelines? I'm sure something internal could have been done to save some money and time as well.

zanderlex : Apperently there was some reason that they weren't confident with the way that they kept increasing the costs. Under those types of circumstances I could totally understand why they felt like they had to move on and couldn't trust them. Having not been there to know the details, I can only speculate.

Jordanv78 : Lets say that the bidding takes too long another problem with costs going up takes place, or simply problems with design and construction come up. Is it possible that by the time the olympics roll around, Japan wont actually have the resources for it? They already said the next stadium wont be ready for 2019, so one little problem could really push them into more trouble.

Anyone paying the least attention to politics shouldn't be surprised by this cost overrun. It's actually the rule for government projects; when you don't have your own funds, you spend quite carelessly. The Japanese (Tokyo?) government should have NEVER been involved in such a ludicrous project. Just look at Sochi...

Jordanv78 : Thanks for mentioning the toilet bowl . To quote a humorist who joked when the Expos were about to move to DC: They don't have a stadium in Washington whereas we have 46! Well, we only have one... BUT WE PAID IT 46 TIMES OVER!!! And yes, promising jobs is usually a ridiculous promise.