On March 30, 2020, the official announcement was made to postpone the Tokyo Olympics for one year:
- Old dates：Friday July 24, 2020 – Sunday August 9, 2020
- New dates：Friday July 23, 2020 – Sunday August 8, 2020
The dates have shifted almost a year. The actual start date is slightly different because the qualifying sessions for softball and soccer start a few days earlier, but we could say the days of the week remain unchanged.
CoSport, the official ticket distributor for the Olympic Games in the United States, also made the announcement on the top page.
At present, we can’t find any new information other than the opening and closing dates, and statement “Meanwhile, CoSport continues working to support customers and ensure their 2020 purchases will be honored at the Games in 2021“
What is new competition schedule?
The competition schedule has not been announced yet. Only the outline has been agreed.
Looking back, the original schedule was announced on April 16th back in 2019. Therefore it is unlikely that the new date will be announced before mid-April 2020. There’s no valid reason to announce it on the same day as last year, and there’s also no reason to rush at this point. I am guessing it may take additional few weeks or a few months until the competition schedule is publicly available.
Reading articles like「東京五輪、来年も日程・会場同じに 組織委が方針」I feel it would be true to
- Adjust at the same venue and on the same schedule, and
- Finalize the competition schedule around summer.
According to the article, a bit of touch negotiation will need to be gone through to secure venues where reservations have already started for events happening in summer of year 2021:
- Tokyo International Forum (for Weightlifting)
- Makuhari Messe Hole (for Wrestling)
I guess a hard decision will need to be made for annual Summer Sonic music festival that uses Makuhari Messe in mid-August every summer.
Personally, it would be much more convenient, accessible and time-saving if the golf venue changed from Saitama to somewhere in Tokyo like Tokyo Yomiuri CC. But I don’t think it will happen. I believe no golf courses in Tokyo metropolitan area are capable of accommodating as much as 25,000 spectators a day.
変更後の五輪チケット取り扱いは？
According to「Tokyo 2020: Olympic Games tickets」in Tokyo 2020 official website,
As soon as details including competition schedule are announced, tickets will be refunded if any of the following conditions are met:
- You will not be able to visit the venue on a new date
- Your place cannot be secured for a new date due to the change in schedule and/or venue
If the competition schedule is finalized around summer, refunds and new ticket sales will likely begin shortly after that.
In addition, the web page says “Once the details are confirmed, we will inform through ATRs the next steps and possible options for overseas ticket purchasers.”
Given that, more detailed information about future ticket sales and handling of sold tickets, both in Japan and in the United States, will be provided after this summer when new competition schedule is fixed.
What will I do?
As I mentioned in my previous entry, the slide of the competition schedule for next summer will work best for my family. My kid is on summer vacation and my house in Tokyo will be still available for us, so there is no problem staying in Japan from late July to mid August.
Assuming that our purchased tickets will be still valid, it seems that we can avoid the worst case scenario where we cannot see any competitions or we have to release and re-book the tickets.
If tickets can be refunded, I am thinking about slightly “optimizing” my purchases. 🙂 Although they say you can only refund your ticket only if “You cannot visit the venue on a new date” or “You cannot accommodate with a competition schedule change”, in reality it is unlikely that you will need to prove your unavailability. If all possible, I want to cancel tickets of sessions where I do not have huge interest in the sports or where schedules are overlapping.
The biggest reason for the ticket optimization is that I have already reached the 30 tickets limit.
As we get a more clear view of participating countries / athletes and competition schedule, possibly I will become interested in seeing more events and sessions. To prepare for the new opportunities, I want to ensure I have room for buying new tickets.
Here is a list of competitions and sessions where I will keep the tickets:
- Golf：My personal highest priority sport is golf. I’ll never cancel all my full eight-day tickets for men’s and women’s competitions.
- Baseball Final：My second highest priority is on baseball. My tickets are for gold medal game, and I am sure I will keep them.
- Hockey Preliminary Round：As I said before, my tickets are for premium match between Japan and Argentina. I will keep them too.
- Weightlifting Women’s 55kg : My wife is really looking forward to the competition, and she will be mad if I cancel the tickets.
- Water Polo Qualification: My wife is also excited to see the game. I will keep the tickets because it is scheduled for the same day as Artistic Swimming competition where we have tickets, and the venues are conveniently close to each other.
- Volleyball Women’s Preliminary Round：China vs. USA match will be a must-see. The tickets are a keep candidate.
- Wrestling Women’s：I want to keep the tickets because I have been paying close attention to 55kg class ever since Japan’s domestic qualification happened two years ago. (It would be so great if the venue changes from Chiba to somewhere in Tokyo which is more conveniently located and more easily accessible to me. :-))
Here is a list of the competitions / sessions where I would like to refund my tickets if all possible.
- Soccer Men’s Final：I will definitely go if this doesn’t conflict with the baseball final, which has a much higher priority. I hope I can sell tickets to someone who is interested if the conflict remains.
- Basketball Men’s Preliminary：This game conflicts with the weight lifting mentioned above. I hope I can buy a different session to avoid the conflict.
- Volleyball Men’s Preliminary：I am not saying that I do not have any interest in watching US game, but I am thinking about purchasing tickets for a scheduled Japan match instead.
- Handball Preliminary / Bronze Medal: I hope I can combine tickets and buy ones for final or game of Japan.
- Equestrian Dressage: The priority is relatively high because the venue is in my neighborhood. The problem is that dressage is scheduled for same day as golf. I am in consideration of picking another session of a more spectacular jumping equestrian.
- Weightlifting Women’s 87kg: I already have ones for 55kg class, so I may pass unless there is a Japanese medal candidate.
Also, I will not immediately release tickets for women’s soccer in Miyagi and 3×3 basketball. The 3×3 may be adjusted if new schedule permits.
Then I can get out of the 30 max ticket limit by canceling the tickets made under my account and obtaining new tickets using accounts for my kid and wife. Then I can buy new tickets for volleyball and softball where detailed match-up schedule for preliminary round has already revealed and my personal interest is relatively high. Also I can look into competitions for Table Tennis and Badminton where I initially stopped myself from purchasing tickets mainly because of conflicts.
The reasons why I am assuming that I can get new tickets are because the Olympics itself has been postponed and tickets are still on sale in many competitions.
Given how much time we now have until the Olympics and how CoSport has been selling tickets so far, foreseeing ticket cancellations, I think that many new tickets will be on sale (again).
Well, I’ve written about public sales many times for last one year, and I had never expected that I will do it again and again for another one year…
