Not only will the spectators be missing at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Japanese sponsors are also canceling or resizing the promotional events initially planned. This was reported by the international agency Reuters, which has collected sources according to which local sponsors are “frustrated” by the decisions taken “at the last minute” by the organizers.
The stop to the public sends local sponsors into crisis
The reference is to the announcement on the absence of the public at the competitions, which has come less than three weeks before the start of the games – which will take place between 23 July and 8 August. After having fully held the hypothesis of letting in a maximum of 10 thousand spectators per event, in the end the organizers had to give in to the advance of the virus: in Tokyo and in the three neighboring prefectures the new infections do not show signs of decreasing. In the city alone, 920 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in 24 hours in recent days, a record since May.
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Cut out plans for promotions and events
According to Reuters, which also cites the newspaper Asahi among other sources, more than a dozen companies would have given orders to cut promotions and events planned for the Games: among these Canon, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance and Ajinomoto.
The sponsors would be “disappointed” by the Tokyo Games, Games hit by the pandemic and also unwanted by the population or by local companies, as shown by several polls conducted in recent weeks. So much so that now several companies also say they are “worried” about being associated with Games that are “unpopular” for the public.
A business worth over 3 billion dollars
A critical situation, especially if you think that overall there are more than 60 Japanese companies that sponsor the Tokyo 2020 games: together, they paid a record amount of over 3 billion dollars, to which must be added another 200 million dollars paid for extend sponsorship rights to 2021, when games were postponed due to the coronavirus. Unlike international partners, which have multi-year agreements, local sponsors are in fact involved only in the Tokyo Games.