Details of redrawings and refunds of Olympic tickets will be announced Wednesday after the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee set a maximum of 10,000 spectators at Games venues.
Redrawings will be conducted for the sessions for which the number of tickets already sold exceeds this limit. Refunds will be offered in lieu of the official resale system in which unneeded tickets are sold at face value. Furthermore, no additional tickets will be sold.
The announcement of ticket holders who will be subject to a redraw and the method of refund will be made Wednesday.
The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on Monday set the maximum number of spectators at 10,000 or 50% of the seating capacity, whichever is lower, in principle. The decision was made with the agreement of the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Japanese government and the Tokyo metropolitan government to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. It was previously announced that no spectators from overseas will be allowed to attend.
In consideration of the educational significance of School Program Tickets purchased for children to attend the Games, they will be excluded from the upper limit, including the teachers and staff members who accompany them. According to the organizing committee, 590,000 such tickets have already been sold for the Olympics, and cancellations are being accepted from this month.
The organizing committee plans to release guidelines this week that will include the behavior it expects from spectators and is also discussing the sale of alcoholic beverages in the venues. It is also considering canceling or scaling down outdoor public viewings.
In addition to spectators, IOC officials who are necessary for the operation of the Games will also enter the venues. More than 10,000 such officials were expected to attend the opening ceremony, but Toshiro Muto, the director general of the organizing committee, expressed his intention to further reduce this figure.
"The number will clearly be less [than 20,000 combined with spectators]," he said.
The maximum number of spectators for the Paralympics, which will open on Aug. 24, will be decided by July 16, one week before the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
-- Suga: Possibly no spectators
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday that he will not hesitate to ban spectators from the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics this summer for the safety and security of residents if a state of emergency is declared to deal with the novel coronavirus.
"It is quite possible that such a situation will occur when a state of emergency is declared," Suga said to reporters after inspecting a workplace vaccination site in Tokyo. "It is a matter of course to give top priority to safety and security."
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