The International Olympic Committee has presented a proposal to national Olympic committees on scaling down the athletes village as part of efforts to cut the costs of hosting an Olympics, a source said Thursday.
The idea is aimed at reducing the burden on host cities based on the IOC's target of decreasing $1 billion from expenditures for staging the Summer Games, including the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the source said.
The IOC has asked some national Olympic committees to provide their views in response to the proposal by the end of October and is planning to compile the answers by the end of this year to be shown to its executive board, according to the source.
The 2020 Tokyo Games organizers are considering reducing the scope of the athletes village, which is currently planned to hold 18,000 beds, and shorten the hours of services, including for the cafeteria.
The IOC has proposed to narrow down the number of people staying at the village by providing financial compensation to national Olympic committees that give up their allocations within the athletes village.
It also urges organizers to schedule competitions so that there are no periods of excessive concentration of athletes and officials staying at the facility and to limit the number of days athletes can remain there before and after their competition.
The proposal also suggests shortening the cafeteria opening hours from 24 hours a day to 21.5 hours as well as cutting back on clinic services and reducing cleaning of rooms.