If Tokyo is chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games Reuters reports that Tokyo 2016 has decided to construct a grand-scale waterfront main stadium.
Kenji Suzuki, the committee’s chief director, told Reuters Wednesday, “we’re happy to have made the decision. Now we feel the race is on and we can begin our bid in earnest”.
Tokyo city government’s proposal to build a $900 million stadium had met with opposition from those wanting to give the city’s National Stadium a facelift, but the Tokyo Bay site of Harumi was chosen at an executive meeting of the bid committee on Tuesday.
Suzuki said, “we’d like to build a magnificent stadium. Personally I would like to see something beautiful built like the Sydney Opera House”.
Now the centrally located National Stadium, the main arena for the 1964 Olympics, will be renovated and used as a venue for the soccer tournament in 2016.
Tokyo’s government will use the private finance initiative (PFI) to help pay for the construction of the main stadium.
Tokyo metropolitan government’s senior director for planning and coordination, Masahiro Nakajima, told Reuters, “now we have to move forward and look at financing the project. The PFI will be used and obviously we want to reduce the burden on Tokyo in terms of costs as much as possible”.
