World Athletics Championships 2025 Preview: Revisiting Tokyo Olympics As Track And Field Returns To Japan

Japan’s National Stadium, built for $1.4 billion, welcomes the World Athletics Championships 2025 in the capital city on September 13, presenting a new chapter following the fan-less Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The venue, criticised for its initial public expenditure and ongoing financial struggles, now comes under renewed scrutiny regarding its future viability.

Japan’s National Stadium stood empty four years ago during the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics. The 60,000-seat stadium, costing $1.4 billion, lacked atmosphere despite hosting the globe’s foremost track and field athletes. Many recall the “sterility” of its opening and closing ceremonies, as Japanese Emperor Naruhito addressed thousands of empty seats to officially begin the Games of the XXXII Olympiad.

The men’s 100-metre final, often the most anticipated Olympic event, saw only silence and a small media throng serenade Marcel Jacobs, a Texas-born Italian, as he posed at the finish line with an Italian flag. The stadium, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and located in central Tokyo, will finally receive the attention it missed when the nine-day track and field world championships commence on Saturday.

These championships will, it is hoped, enliven the venue with stars like American sprinter Noah Lyles, whose struggles with depression tainted his Tokyo trip, and pole vault world-record holder Mondo Duplantis. The stadium has awaited such an event since its completion in 2019. This offers good news for fans hoping to experience an atmosphere that was absent in 2021.

Financial Concerns Cloud Olympic Venue’s Future

The stadium’s renewed prominence reignites questions about government expenditure on a venue that has struggled to find sufficient uses after the Olympics. The Games have a lengthy history of generating white-elephant venues built with public funds, with Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008, and Rio de Janeiro in 2016 serving as notable examples.

Plans for a new stadium by Zaha Hadid were abandoned in 2015 when costs escalated beyond $2 billion. That original stadium design had a futuristic look, which some compared to a bicycle helmet.

Kengo Kuma won a subsequent bidding contest, designing a stadium that integrated with the existing urban landscape through more Japanese elements such as wood, gardens, and flowing water. The new venue replaced the 1964 Olympics stadium, which was demolished and never regarded as an architectural gem.

However, Tokyo’s 1964 Games did produce iconic architecture, including the Yoyogi National Stadium, acknowledged as the jewel of those Olympics and a symbol of Japan’s post-World War II resurgence. This smaller indoor arena hosted swimming during the 1964 Olympics. The National Stadium, constructed with taxpayer money for the Tokyo Olympics, appears to be a money loser for taxpayers.

Victor Matheson, who studies sports economics at College of the Holy Cross, observed that Japan’s National Stadium has too few uses, no permanent tenant, ongoing maintenance and operation expenses, and potential payments on debt service.

Matheson informed The Associated Press via email that "there are simply not that many events that require a 60,000-plus capacity". He additionally noted, "there are not many music concerts that can fill a stadium that size", and "things like a soccer or rugby World Cup or track and field championships only come around rarely".

The National Stadium reportedly incurred losses of approximately 1 billion yen annually (about $7 million) as late as fiscal 2024. It has since undergone privatisation to curb public-sector expenses. A private consortium now manages the stadium, though the national government retains ownership and continues to cover some bills.

Matheson cited a study indicating that large stadiums in the United States, home to NFL teams, typically hosted fewer than 10 major entertainment or sports events per year, excluding regular NFL games. Matheson concluded, "Most of the time you end up spending $1 billion-plus on a facility that sits empty 350 days a year."

Adjacent Development Raises Fresh Concerns

The National Stadium stands adjacent to Jingu Gaien, a park-like area featuring a renowned baseball and rugby stadium and a cherished avenue lined by over 100 gingko trees.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has approved plans to demolish and rebuild the baseball and rugby stadiums within the same reconfigured space. This arrangement permits developer Mitsui Fudosan and other entities to construct three skyscrapers in what was primarily a park area, representing some of Tokyo’s most valuable real estate.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government enacted the zoning changes to allow this high-rise development – which will not conclude for a decade – as the Olympics approached, deeming the new National Stadium an urgent priority. Not only did the 2020 Olympics prove very costly for taxpayers, but they also created an opportunity for private developers to encroach on what has traditionally been park-like space.

"When someone else is footing the bill, we tend to build Rolls-Royces and not Toyota Corollas," Matheson said. "At a price of $1.4 billion, Tokyo’s Olympic stadium costs roughly the same amount as the entire 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, even after accounting for inflation."

(With AP Inputs)