Tokyo Olympics will need $800M taxpayer bailout if fans can’t attend

Taxpayers in Japan could reportedly be forced to pony up an $800 million bailout of the already heavily subsidized Tokyo Olympics.

If the Japanese government does not allow fans into the Olympics, which are due to start on July 23, organizers will be forced to refund billions of yen to ticket-holders and face a massive budget shortfall, according to a Financial Times report based on organizing committee records.  The burden will then fall on Tokyo taxpayers, who have already spent billions of dollars on Olympics-related projects and seen the games pushed back once already, from summer 2020 to 2021.