After a long suffering wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, the massive number of daily cases of deaths and constant struggle for oxygen, hospital beds and medicines are affecting everybody’s life. The Sports events have resumed across the world and exciting time ahead with Tokyo Olympics is set to begin on July 23rd, 2021.
Market in Olympic Games in the middle of a pandemic
International Olympic Committee and Tokyo Olympic organizers are to unveil a new plan of campaign. However, the sports industry will never be the same again. The Olympic Games are most effective and lucrative international marketing platforms in the world reaching billions of people over 200 nations and territories throughout the world.
Construction of all latest and new permanent venues for deferred Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic 2021 has been completed last year. Only Japan says that it will go ahead with preparations for the Tokyo games as planned. But an unexpected dangerous googly in this case of the COVID virus can derail its usual work without wasting time or resources.
Resistance to Olympics in Tokyo, Japan is still running high with 70 to 80 percent in expressing strong disapproval of Olympics mega-events in recent polls. Now more tests, no quarantine is in updated rules.
Modern Olympics was canceled four times. The Cancellation of the Olympics will cost Japan more than $ 12.6 billion. A year`s postponement now means the addition of billions to keep facilities for sports in specified shapes till the games commence.
A serious challenge is to ensure that much-awaited games do not become international super spreader events. Tokyo can not host guests and crazy spectators as planned earlier. The run risk of sports fans catching physical and mental health as a casualty of coronavirus pandemic and event being suspended midway to attacks. Olympics is large in scale and intensity of strong desire of participation by top athletes, officials, crazy spectators and journalists from all over the world is very high.
(The Writer is a former Associate Professor and consultant of Limca Book of Records. Views are his personal)