The planned Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium must be revised after its predicted cost had almost doubled to more than $2 billion, a reported record for a sports stadium.
“We are scrapping our plans for the stadium, and starting from zero,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, according to Reuters.
The planned stadium had been criticized for its cost and its design — like a bicycle helmet — since shortly after Tokyo beat Madrid and Istanbul in an International Olympic Committee vote to host the 2020 Olympics on Sept. 7, 2013.
Projected costs had at one point been up to a reported $3 billion, though it had later been planned to be cut in size by 25 percent before it was scrapped altogether.