Tokyo Olympics' postponement said to present challenges to Chinese businesses

The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will cast a shadow on China's sports scene with event organizers and related businesses suffering a commercial fallout, according to a Beijing-based sports marketing expert.

The joint decision by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers to delay the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were due to open on July 24, has posed major challengers for Chinese business operators in the sports marketing field, leaving sponsorship programs, public relation campaigns and Games' related services abruptly suspended or canceled, said Adam Zhang, founder of Beijing-based sports marketing consultancy Key-Solutions.

"The postponement of the Games has caught up sponsors including some Chinese companies off guard as their pre-Games marketing campaigns will be disrupted for sure," Zhang told China Daily on Tuesday evening right before the joint decision was made.

"The rescheduling will turn down some marketing opportunities that sponsors have been expecting and investing in for a long time, thus causing a great loss in their marketing resources.

"The uncertainty shrouding the Games even though being confirmed to be delayed will make it difficult for related business operators to deploy future campaigns or make further investment."

In a joint statement released on Tuesday evening, the IOC and Tokyo organizers confirmed the Games will be rescheduled "to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021", to safeguard the health of the athletes and everybody involved in the Games.

Staging the Tokyo Games in 2021 will likely take a toll on China's quadrennial National Games and the World University Games, which are due to be held in the same year in Shaanxi provincial capital Xi'an and Chengdu in Sichuan province respectively.

Overlapping with the world's biggest sporting extravaganza, these events are up against tough challenges in drawing attention from fans, media and sponsors while rearranging their own competition schedules as well as TV broadcasting deals.

However, Zhang suggest Chinese even organizers approach their own preparations in a positive mindset.

"The rescheduling of the Olympics into 2021 will make next year a prime sports year. The general public interest in sports and star athletes will increase around the time when the Olympics are held, which means greater exposure for sports-related activities as a whole. Organizers should study how to take advantage on the surge in interests in sporting events to help promote their own events," he said.

The marketing strategies for the Tokyo Games of some Chinese companies, such as IOC's TOP partner Alibaba, the IOC's official sports apparel supplier Anta and Caissa Tourism Group, the Game's official ticket reseller on the Chinese mainland, are all subject to adjustments due to the postponement.