NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Asian Games organisers could have avoided accommodation issues by building an Athletes' Village but doing so would have left them with a white elephant after the curtain comes down on the multi-sport event, the Olympic Council of Asia said on Friday.
The initial plan for an Athletes' Village at the Aichi-Nagoya Games was scrapped to control costs and organisers have had to get creative, housing 17,000 athletes and officials in hotels, shipping-container style huts and a cruise ship.
However, there have been complaints about cramped conditions and undersized beds, and organisers faced further scrutiny when Team Japan said they were seeking alternative arrangements after some male and female athletes were assigned to shared rooms.
"It's very easy, you can insist on an Athletes' Village," OCA Director GeneralHusain Al-Musallam told reporters on Friday.
"You build the Athletes' Village, you spend such amount of money, and then we need to see what's going to happen after the Games' closing ceremony and what's the utilisation of the Athletes' Village.
"(Considering) the cost and size of the Games, we need to be a little bit flexible.
"Yes, the Athletes' Village is good to look at. But at the end of the day, we need to be practical."
While the next two Asian Games in Doha and Riyadh will feature Athletes' Villages, Tayyab Ikram, head of the OCA Coordination Commission for Aichi-Nagoya, said it is not a mandatory element of any Games.
"We had clear statistics about what is happening in the real estate values. We don't want to leave a white elephant after the Games here," said Ikram.
"It was not easy discussions, but it was also not a compromise because we found a very unique kind of alternatives," he said of the accommodation options.
SPORT IN DIFFICULT TIMES
Local organisers have said the strain on accommodation arose because they were expecting 15,000 athletes and officials for the Games, only for numbers to increase as new sports were added.
"(The choice was) either we sacrifice the athletes, or we pay high costs. So we choose not to sacrifice the athletes," said Al-Musallam, who also serves as president of World Aquatics.
"We want every athlete to have the possibility and chance to compete.
"Now, with the current political crisis and conflicts in Asia and around the world, we need sport at this moment more than anything else."
Organisers also said on Friday that they had plans in place to cope with any emergencies with a typhoon potentially threatening the Aichi–Nagoya coast on Monday.
"Under normal rainy conditions, the Games will carry on as usual," Nagoya Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa, who also serves as deputy president of the Games, told Reuters.
"However, in the event of torrential rain that triggers emergency alerts, we will arrange for the athletes to evacuate temporarily.
"Additionally, if we encounter typhoon-level strong winds, the cruise ship will move offshore. We already have clear protocols in place for situations like these."
After the COVID-19 pandemic deprived the Tokyo Olympics of spectators five years ago, Hirosawa said pent-up public demand will resultin packed venues.
"It has been a very long time since Japan has hosted a tournament of this scale with spectators, so public attention is extremely high," Hirosawa said.
"Right now, the enthusiasm here in Nagoya is really ramping up."
(Writing by Amlan Chakraborty in Nagoya; editing by ...)
