Tokyo Olympics allowing 10k fans at events

Yahoo Finance's Sports Reporter, Henry Bushnell, joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the latest with the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Video transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back. Looking into the business of the Olympics, very interesting change here announced this morning when it comes to how many fans might be allowed as spectators at the Olympic games. And the number coming in at about 10,000 Japanese spectators. Of course, international travel still not allowed when it comes to spectators coming in to watch the Olympics. But a very interesting update, given the health concerns that are still there around the Olympic games.

And for more on that, I want to bring on Yahoo Sports reporter Henry Bushnell joining us once again. And Henry, when we look at it, this is one of the biggest, I think, concerns that we had when it comes to the Olympics, is that public health concern. Even the people there in Japan, depending on the polling, not necessarily in favor of moving forward with packed stadiums. This would be about half capacity. But what are you seeing in terms of this maybe being a signal about the confidence of moving forward with the games?

HENRY BUSHNELL: Yeah, I think this is a pretty major decision, especially given that everybody who was actually involved in the Olympics, in terms of athletes and their coaches and stuff, is going to be subject to pretty strict health regulations and is going to be in a-- it's not a complete bubble, but something resembling a bubble. But Olympic organizers obviously have much less control over people attending the games as fans.

The interesting part about this is that this decision that was made this morning by a combination of the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government, it was made against the recommendation of Japan's top medical advi-- the Japanese government's top medical advisor, who, last week, recommended that they hold the games without any fans at all. And now, a few days later, the IOC and the organizing committee have said, nope, we're going ahead with 50% capacity at each venue.

AKIKO FUJITA: I mean, Henry, it feels like at this point it's a business decision, right? I mean, to put it bluntly, that's outweighing any other health concern on the ground there. And I know we talked before about where the IOC makes money. It comes down to sponsorships. And so, if they are able to continue with the game, certainly, they're going to rake in the money they're looking for. But I wonder, from a ratings perspective, what you're anticipating. I mean, how many people-- I mean, what's the interest level likely to be with an Olympic games that are held under these conditions?

HENRY BUSHNELL: I think the interest level is still-- now, I think there are two aspects of this interest level. One is the interest level on the ground in Japan and the fans who actually will be going to the games. And I think you could see some suppressed interest level there.

But in terms of the international viewing audience, I believe an NBC executive recently said that they're expecting it to be one of their most successful, if not their most successful, Olympics ever. I think there are still going to be-- is still going to be a huge international television audience for these games. And I'm not-- I'm frankly, I'm not sure that fans in venues and the capacity of fans at venues is a big factor there. I think people are still going to watch.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, it's weird. Tennis star Novak Djokovic saying that he would have maybe rethought if there weren't going to be fans to watch there as well. So I guess he maybe wanted some attention in the stadium, some fan aspect there. When you think about the health aspect, though, it does seem like they could undo this, right? There is still the issue of if things get bad, they could reverse this stance. But I guess, you know, that that we've always seen people maybe act too slow when it comes to public health measures in reacting to a spike in cases.

HENRY BUSHNELL: Yeah, the organizers did leave open the possibility in their announcement today that if Japan or Tokyo were to reinstitute this state of emergency that just got lifted yesterday, if there were to be a state of emergency during the games, then they could reverse this decision, and we could go with no fans at all. Because I think there is a significant worry that-- and it's not only the fans going into the venues.

It's all the socializing that happens around the attendance at a sporting event, right? It's the restaurants beforehand. It's the gatherings afterward. And there's a worry that that could contribute to a rise in cases. But for now, they're confident that at 50% capacity, they can go ahead and have this not contribute to a huge spike in cases in Tokyo.