UHY GLOBAL JANUARY 2020 ALL AROUND THE WORLD


PRIDE AND PERFORMANCE


In a few short months, 15,000 top athletes will gather in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The world’s biggest logistical and commercial engine is already revving up. The statistics come hard and fast, like a sprinter ducking into the finishing tape. Tokyo 2020 will feature competition in 55 sports, with over 15,000 top athletes competing in nearly 900 Olympic and Paralympic events. Around 5,000 medals will be awarded over the two Games, and in a new twist medals have been forged from the recycled remains of over six million mobile phones. The greatest Olympic test of all still awaits the organisers, even after venues and athletes’ villages are complete. Their Herculean task? To guide thousands of athletes and millions of spectators, support staff, media and assorted personalities through hundreds of events in scores of venues. To make it all run on time. To make it run to budget. It is a mammoth undertaking with a price tag to match. A figure of USD 28 billion for total expenditure is considered a reasonable estimate. But there will be indirect costs, too. Then there is clean-up, security, environmental impact... to name just a few. So will it be worth it? The cost of staging the Games has rocketed in recent years – and this is reflected in the number of cities bidding to host them. Twelve cities put in bids to host the 2004 Olympics, but only five wanted the 2020 Games. In 2018, the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) claimed that Rio de Janeiro, the 2016 host city, was still struggling with debts incurred from its brief summer in the Olympic spotlight. The debts accumulated by Greece for the Athens Games in 2004 helped bankrupt the country.


Despite the costs involved, Morito Saito, director, UHY FAS Ltd, Tokyo, Japan, believes the 2020 Olympics will be different. “I personally believe that real long-term benefits from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics can be expected,” Morito says. “The reason being that the main sponsor is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. And it has a lot of money.” Tokyo is a wealthy city with a highly developed infrastructure. When Beijing hosted the Games in 2008, more than half of the record USD 45 billion budget went on non-sports infrastructure. Tokyo will not need to spend anywhere near as much. Morito notes that Tokyo has a total municipal budget that exceeds that of New York City and, indeed, the national budget of Sweden. The infrastructure may be there, but Tokyo’s public transport system is notoriously overcrowded. How will it cope with an influx of tens of thousands of visitors to the Games? The city has a plan in place. Reducing commuter numbers to free up space is one element of this, with many Tokyo-based businesses poised to encourage staff to work from home where possible during the Games. Platforms are being widened and the range of barrier-free facilities at stations closes to Olympic venues are being increased. A brand new station, Takanawa Gateway – designed by the architect who has designed Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium – will open temporarily for the duration of the Games. Guides will be on hand to help move visitors quickly through stations, which may also be patrolled by security robots . Tokyo also expects long-term benefits in terms of jobs and tourism. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government predicts the creation of 306,000 jobs as a direct result of the Games, and many more indirectly. The Japan Tourism Agency has set a target of 40 million visitors in 2020, up from 31 million in 2018. Morito believes these benefits will last well into the future. “The number of tourists is increasing every year, and more foreign tourists can be expected by introducing Japanese culture at the Olympics,” he adds. Tokyo may be an Olympic winner, after all. As Tokyo gears up for the Games, so do the teams who will go for glory in the summer. In fact, they have been preparing for years, and not just on the track and in the pool. It costs huge sums to send a team of athletes to an international event, and in the case of the British Paralympic Association (BPA), commercial partners provide significant funds to ensure the team is fully supported. Subarna Banerjee is head of UK member firm UHY Hacker Young’s national charity and not-for-profit group, and the BPA is his client. “The BPA is reliant on private organisations,” says Subarna. “A huge part of its work is engaging with sponsors and potential sponsors.” For that, like all non-profits, it has to show that funds are properly and productively used. Subarna and his team ensure that the BPA is compliant, transparent, and in financial terms an attractive proposition for potential corporate supporters. For everyone concerned, Tokyo 2020 is a labour of love, requiring dedication, determination and large sums of money. But as the excitement builds, scepticism falls away. Tokyo promises to be a glorious summer. For more information about UHY’s capabilities, email the executive office, info@uhy.com or visit www.uhy.com 


As the 2020 Olympics draws to a close, Tokyo will be making final preparations for the opening of the 16th Summer Paralympic Games. 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the Paralympics – but its history goes back to the period following the end of the Second World War. In 1948, Dr Ludwig Guttman, a neurosurgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the UK, organised a one-day sports even for 16 wheelchair-bound British war veterans with spinal cord injuries. The timing of the event, which coincided with the opening day of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, was no accident. Guttman’s aim was to create an elite international sports competition for people with disabilities equivalent to the Olympic Games. The Stoke Mandeville Games were held annually over the next four years, but only became truly international in 1952, when veterans from the Netherlands and Israel participated. The first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome, Italy, in 1960, hosting 400 wheelchair-bound athletes from 23 countries. Over the past six decades, the Paralympics have gone from strength to strength, growing to include athletes with a wide range of disabilities, and an increasing number of sports. Athletes from 80 countries* will participate in some 540 events in 22 sports during the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, with badminton and taekwondo making their debut. Our infographic, Six decades of the Paralympic Games looks at key moments and developments for the Paralympics over the past 60 years, and shows how both the Summer and Winter Games have grown. To find out more about the Paralympic Movement and the Paralympic Games, visit the website of the International Paralympic Committee. * Figure at November 2019

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