Category: TOKYO 2020 FROM UNITED STATES

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…

On March 24, 2020, IOC President and Prime Minister Abe agreed on postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.

At this point I don’t know exactly when it will be postponed. They only said the event will be held “by” the summer of 2021. For now I personally look for answers to these three questions:

1. Where do my purchased tickets go?
2. How do I deal with my booked flight tickets?
3. Can I really go to Japan for the Olympics?

My Tickets

So far I have purchased Olympics tickets for 25 sessions of 13 events of 11 competitions.

I already spent more than a few thousand bucks, so that it would be most painful scenario that I lose all tickets without any refund.

I checked the Terms and Conditions that we need to agree to in CoSport ticket purchase process:

“Tickets for Events that have been rescheduled or postponed are valid for the Event with the same Session code at the rescheduled day and/or time“

It sounds like the tickets we have purchased will remain valid without being canceled or released .

CoSport sent an email to ticket holders on the day after the postponement announcement.

“CoSport Tokyo 2020 purchases will be honored at the Games in 2021‘

I need to figure out what “Will be honored” exactly mean, but it seems unlikely that the tickets we bought will be canceled.

Competition Schedule

Competition schedule may change within the two week range of the event. I may end up with having unexpected conflicts of sessions. I’m still not sure if it’s possible to cancel or change.

The schedule change may get rid of conflicts. In my case, baseball final and men’s soccer final are conflicting. The same goes to basketball preliminary and weightlifting. I hope I won’t need to give up on some of the tickets I already have.

Flight Tickets

This is what I care most about. I have purchased non-refundable round-trip air tickets between Seattle and Tokyo for my family, so I have no choice but to cancel and re-book ones to accommodate with the date changes.

Checking website of the airline company, the status looks quite interesting due to travel restrictions because of the current Covid-19 situation:

What is the “Subject to government approval“? 🙂

In any case, I won’t be able to take any action until the IOC announces a new competition schedule, given the current situation of the Covid-19.

Can I really go to Japan?

“Can my family really go to Japan next year?” The answer would be different depending on whether the event is postponed to spring or summer.

• If postponed to spring of 2021

There’s a rumor where the Olympics get postponed to next spring. It’s one of the best seasons in Tokyo from weather perspective. However, because kids still have schools to go to in the United States, we have a risk that kids may not be accompanied. Adults are also drawn to it. Inevitably, that makes us difficult to travel to Japan. Kids in the States have one week spring break in first half of April, so I have a slight expectation that I’ll have to tie it up, but that’s not enough.

But, is it realistic to postpone the entire event to Spring?

That is when Basketball NBA is at a full swing. They won’t be able to form the America dream team.

Boxing will be difficult to rent at the Kokugikan hall if it coincides with Grand Sumo competition in May.

Golf has the Masters tournament in early April and PGA Championship in May. If they conflict with the Olympics, top players will not prioritize the event.

• If postponed to summer of 2021

In the United States, when you say “executing by“, it means “executing in” at least in my company. In other words, “held by summer” is usually taken as “held in summer,” and it is often what happens.

Kids summer vacation starts in late June, so it’s best to move the dates to summer.

However, it’s super hot and humid in summer in Tokyo. It’s when you get a lot of mosquitoes to bite. I haven’t seen any mosquitoes or cockroaches for the last few years as Seattle does not have them. I will be super depressed just because I have to deal with mosquitoes that I hate the most in the world.

I wish I could go to Tokyo in a kid-friendly season when there are no mosquitoes, but I know this is the “summer” Olympic games…

What if the Olympics gets canceled?

Possibly, except for the case where the Covid-19 situation lasts longer than expected and next year’s events are also jeopardized, the “Olympic cancellation” scenario will unlikely happen, but I originally started to work on this entry based on the assumption/rumor that the Olympics will be canceled.

So what if the Olympic Games get canceled due to Covid-19?

According to CoSport and the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (… long! TOCOG for short), honestly, I didn’t quite get what would happen to my tickets.

I revisited the Terms & Conditions, which was asked to read and give consent when purchasing tickets on CoSport website,

“If an event (= Tokyo Olympics) is canceled, the (ticket) purchaser may apply for a refund to THE COMPANY (= CoSport) under the parameters outlined in the TOCOG Terms and Conditions.“

Then I read the TOCOG Terms and Conditions:

“If our corporation (= TOCOG) fails to fulfill the obligations set forth in the Tokyo 2020 Ticket Rules, and if the cause is force majeure, we will not be liable for the failure.“

Therefore, there will be no refund if the Olympic cancellation caused by Covid-19 is considered as “force majeure”, meaning that neither TOCOG nor CoSport is liable.

I am just crossing my fingers not to get the Olympics to be canceled.

As I am a US resident, I purchased Tokyo Olympics tickets for more than 20 sessions from the official distributor CoSport. It seems that the process is different from residents in Japan who bought Olympics tickets from the Japanese sales site. The difference possibly will apply to resale process after purchase.

I wasn’t clear about resale process on CoSport website and their emails, and I asked CoSport about the following two questions on email.

• [Question 1] Is there a ticket resale in the future?
• [Question 2] What should I do if my mailing address changes?

About Ticket Resale

In Japan, an “official resale” service that allows you to buy and sell tickets at a fixed price will be launched after spring 2020. I wonder if CoSport will follow the same process. I found no particular description on the CoSport official website, and also I was able to find no particular description about overseas residents on Japanese purchase site.

Accoridng to CoSport, there is no official resale in the United States.

This is the reply I had from CoSport after more than a month.

「We do not manage resale.」

In fact, I found the answer in the CoSport website’s FAQ page.

It does not tell any more details about how to transfer tickets or whether tickets can be transferred to family members, friends, or co-workers outside the United States such as Japan. I will need to check back sometime in the future.

However, as a person who has reached the purchase limit of 30 tickets for one individual, the resale would be an only option to make room for buying more tickets.

About Mailing Address Change

Changing mailing address at CoSport was an urgent task and risk for me because it has changed since I moved this February in the United States.  I am using the mail forwarding service which is valid for next one year and all mails delivered to my old address should be forwarded to my new address, but I do not have a full trust in public services available here in the United States.  😉

For mailing address changes, confirmation of ticket purchase and FAQ on CoSport website have some details:

“Individual tickets orders placed prior to 30 April 2020 can only be shipped.”

My personal account on the CoSport website also has a field for mailing address. Should I change the address associated with the account? Here is CoSport’s answer to the question.

I slightly remember I’ve read this information somewhere, but I will wait patiently anyway. However, if this is the case, it is not clear what to do if you move or plan to move outside the United States. As you can see in the FAQ above, “Host City Collection”,which is to receive tickets in Tokyo, would be the option. (There is no confirmation though.)

As I said in one of my previous posts,the pool composition for men and women’s volleyball has been confirmed.

So far, I have purchased tickets for two sessions for each men’s and women’s preliminary stage. Each session has two games, and tournament schedule was unknown yet.

Let me link to Mr. Barrezapo who covers the entire schedule. (Japanese only)

【結果速報】東京2020+1 オリンピック バレーボール日本代表（男女）日程、組み合わせ

According to the web site, here are the matches of the preliminary round tickets I got:

Men’s Volleyball：

• Canada（7th) vs. Iran（8th）
• USA（2nd）vs. Tunisia（22nd）

Women’s Volleyball：

• Russia（5th）vs. Argentina（11th）
• China（1st）vs. USA（2nd）

（The figures in parentheses are the world rankings as of October last year by Barezapo）

Although the sessions do not include games against Japan, both of them include ones for USA! It’s kind of nice (or not) to go see games of USA. If tickets purchased at CoSport are assigned to each country on a seat block basis, I think it will be interesting because I will be sitting probably next to many Americans or Japanese living in the United States. I may be excited enough to wave US flag in the audience.

Canada games are also good. Seattle is close to the US/Canada border. Many of my colleagues also work in Vancouver.

Above all, I am glad to know that I can watch one of the best cards in Volleyball preliminary round. China, which ranked first in the world ranking, and USA, which ranked second in the world, clash in Women’s Volleyball preliminary round!  I don’t know much about how they play these days, but as Roping and Zhang Yingfeng from China was best players in my generation, I’m so excited to hear news about women’s volleyball in China.

Currently, Roping is leading the China national team. It seems that she once served as director of USA national team too. Her English name is “Jenny” and I think it suits her so well. 🙂