We're within 100 days until the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games. And as the Olympic world celebrates, it's a bittersweet moment for me.

I have undoubtedly been a passionate Olympics fan, reveling in the global community and camaraderie, the sporting effort, and the spectacle. Who can resist the Olympic spirit? I've had the unique pleasure of witnessing it in person, first at Los Angeles 1984, then London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Unfortunately, though, Games and Rings won't be at these next Games. After a couple years of planning and excitement, official (old now) news is that foreign spectators will not be allowed into Japan for the Olympics. It's logical, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues, and far too many remain unvaccinated and compromised. Just holding the Games safely, without a live audience, will be a daunting challenge. This, I can understand and accept.

What sours me is the effect on Authorized Ticket Resellers (ATRs). In the U.S., CoSport has been the sole ATR from which consumers can purchase official event tickets, and thus hospitality (hotel) packages that include tickets. Ticket purchases alone carry a "service and handling fee" that now is un-refundable, so those customers will only receive 80% of their total ticket purchase back. As CoSport explains, Tokyo 2020 organizers will only reimburse ticket face value back to CoSport, so only that money is available. Why CoSport didn't purchase appropriate insurance to cover a shortfall is a different day's question.

The real hard luck customers are the hospitality package purchasers. These packages will only receive 75% of their purchase back. As these purchases tend to be pumped up with premium hotel night costs, and "VIP" lounge access and treatment, the cost can be in the thousands of dollars. In my case, the loss of 25% means I will lose more than $3,000 U.S. This is not an amount I can afford to take lightly. But what's one to do? U.S. customers are told by credit cards that it is too late to contest the purchase. Travel insurance providers claim that this isn't a qualified reason to be reimbursed. Local hotels in Tokyo reportedly refuse to return what they receive from CoSport, hampering the ability to return more than 75%. How can I have protected myself better from all of this?

Arguably hospitality package holders are key Olympic supporters, as they are fans - many athlete family members - who are willing to spend significant amounts to attend the Games and support in person. Today, I'm wary of the idea of buying a similar package ever again, let alone from CoSport. Were I to invest in an Olympics trip again, I'd take my chances - as I've done in past - with searching for accommodation on my own.

I'm wiling to try to think of my cash loss as a supportive "contribution" to the global Olympic effort. But the fact that this money is really just covering CoSport's own losses is a bitter pill to swallow.

In the meantime, another key date is coming up. April 15 is the last day to submit a request for a refund for a CoSport hospitality package in the U.S. "Failure to meet this deadline will jeopardize your refund." The other option is receive the amount as a credit toward future purchases, but how to trust CoSport again?

What's an Olympics fan to do?

The Major League Baseball season gets underway tomorrow, and its top stars are likely embracing the return to playing. In an alternate universe, though, they'd also be excited this year at the opportunity to showcase their sport and represent their home nations at the Olympic Games this summer.

In reality, the vast majority of MLB players will not be in Tokyo. While its "second-tier" players could be available, MLB's elite players will not. And from Barcelona 1992 through Beijing 2008, the last Olympic stretch for baseball before its Tokyo return, they did not, either. Simply put, MLB's team owners and players' union don't like the idea of shutting down the league's summer season for two weeks to accommodate the Games. (Meanwhile, the Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korea Baseball Organization have committed to the Olympic break.)

For Olympic and baseball (not necessarily MLB) fans, it's incredibly frustrating. The Olympics are the ultimate stage for a worldwide sports audience, and a validation of a sport as globally relevant. Sure, MLB has had the World Baseball Classic - notably, revenue from which it controls - but it hardly compares to the Summer Games. 

​Outspoken MLB star Bryce Harper puts it frankly, "You want to grow the game as much as possible and you're not going to let us play in the Olympics because you don't want to (lose) out on money for a two-week period? OK, that's dumb". (Um... yes, baseball team owners are more interested to grow their immediate revenue than to "grow the game".)
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Baseball may not get the chance again. The sport was not included in the program for Paris 2024, taking women's softball (despite embracing the Olympics) down with it. Very likely, the fact that the sport's biggest power brokers don't have an interest is a key to why baseball isn't a core sport for the Olympics. A return for Los Angeles 2028 is possible, helped by a United States-based Games, but MLB availability may very well again be an issue.

The vast majority of sports do see the Olympics as a unique, elite goal for its players. But MLB is not alone in some recalcitrance. Here is a look at how some other high-revenue professional sports approach the Games.

​Ice Hockey

As the only traditional team sport in the Winter Olympics* since Chamonix 1924, ice hockey has a special position of interest from the International Olympic Committee in ensuring elite players participate. Aside from that background, men's ice hockey's relationship with the Games is similar to baseball's.

The sport's top professional league, the National Hockey League, has a team ownership structure reluctant to stop a season's play and risk revenue and player injury. And, similar to MLB's World Baseball Classic, the NHL has its own contrived international tournament, the World Cup of Hockey.

And also similar, other top leagues make the Olympics a priority. But every four years, there is another round of negotiations, with the NHL's business interests pitched against the IOC's and the International Hockey Federation's interest in presenting a top quality tournament to expand the game. NHL players appeared for the first time in Nagano 1998, and did so through Sochi 2014, but skipped Pyeongchang 2018. Current expectation is that the NHL will return for Beijing 2022. That's due in large part to the players themselves wanting to go.

Widely expected after months of speculation, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee announced this morning that foreign visitors will be restricted for the upcoming Games this summer. As a result of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, Japan as a nation continues to restrict entry by foreign nationals, and the feasibility of such restrictions eased for a mass of varied nationalities for a condensed period of time is just not possible. Strategic guidelines already issued for the athletes, officials, and operations staff needed for the Games to even happen at a stripped down level indicate the level of precaution the local government wants to preserve.

Not having overseas fans attend will surely be different. The Olympics represent a glorious global gathering, on the playing field and extended to supporters throughout the world. Attending the Games is a special, unique experience that underscores the multinational, positive spirit. But these are unprecedented times, for sure.

The Summer Games will go on. At its heart, the Olympics are about the athletes, and the number one priority should be about how to ensure a safe and secure experience for 339 events across 19 days and 42 venues, for those competing, organizing, and hosting.

From International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, "...the first principle is safety. Every decision has to respect the principle of safety first...the IOC's top priority was, is, and remains to organize safe Olympic and Paralympic Games for everyone...".

For foreign fans, television coverage it is! But for the athletes' sake, I hope that the Japanese public are able to - and will - pick up the slack in attendance, as much as allowed by local organizers.

For this one specific fan, not attending these Games, and not visiting bucket-list destination Japan is a huge disappointment, though the bigger picture of the Covid-19-ravaged world is paramount. Wish me, and all would-be in-person fans luck in navigating what to do next! Games and Rings will continue its athlete-based highlights and roundups.

"However, the essential of the Games will remain unchanged, as athletes give their utmost and inspire the world with transcendent performances...Even if you are no longer able to come to Japan this summer, we hope very much that you will continue to support the Tokyo 2020 Games."

- Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto

At the International Olympic Committee's virtual IOC Session last week, the IOC supported the Future Host Commission's recommendations for a 'new approach' in awarding Olympic Games to a targeted host site. Particularly eyeing the 2032 Games, the IOC has now confirmed 'continuous' and 'targeted' dialogue with Brisbane and the southeast Queensland region in Australia for their candidacy.

This is certainly reinforcing a new way to award the Games site. Previously, Games were awarded to a candidate after reviewing and narrowing multiple bids, with a winner announced seven years before the respective Games. Traditionally, this bid process spurred exorbitant spending, and frequent malfeasance speculation, in frequent 'losing' bids. That meant bids became increasingly unpopular, with public scrutiny against spending and often causing would-be-competent bids to fizzle.

​When Budapest dropped out of the running for the 2024 Summer Games, it left only Paris and Los Angeles as candidates. Faced with two logical hosts, and looking to avoid a messy 2028 bid season, the IOC awarded 2024 to Paris and 2028 to Los Angeles, setting up today's 'targeted dialogue' with a single preferred future host.

While some struggle to adjust to the new world, from journalists to other would-be bids, there is some logic to a revamped awarding. In addition to the opportunity to pre-select a very capable host, the new approach also helps avoid a repeat of the 2022 Winter Games bid season, in which the IOC found itself caught between a choice of either Almaty or Beijing, neither of which ideal. Beijing was the obvious choice for getting a Games held, but predictably has still caused the IOC headaches. 

There was luckily no such public rancor in the race for the 2026 Winter Games, awarded to Milano-Cortina over Stockholm-Are in what is likely to be the last host selection under the old multi-bid candidature system.

A number of sports will debut as Olympic sports across Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, a few strikingly more unconventional than those we're used to seeing at the Summer Games. While some newer sports have integrated well into the program in recent editions, the rapid change brings to question, why are sports not "demonstrated" first?

A Long History of Demonstration

Sports looking to win a coveted place on the Olympic sports program, and with it perceived precious validation as a sport that matters globally, used to have an opportunity at the Games as a 'demonstration sport', presented as a scheduled event but usually without official medals or records. Demonstration sports were first officially included alongside the main Olympic Games agenda at Stockholm 1912. Most Games editions through Barcelona 1992 had at least one demonstration sport.

While some Games chose events with particular local flavor (e.g. basque pelota at Barcelona 1992), the practice mostly served as sort of a testing ground for sports seeking official inclusion. Baseball was "demonstrated" five times before official inclusion in 1992 and for the next four editions. Taekwondo was demonstrated twice before its upgrade. Tennis, badminton, handball, volleyball, canoeing, and women's judo all were demonstration sports before their own inclusions in today's official summer program. On the winter side, curling, freestyle skiing, and short track speed skating all had their turn as demonstration sports.

The idea of a sport being 'demonstrated' tested an event for TV and fan appeal, and whether or not the sport 'fit' into an Olympics setting, or maybe whether just whether it was safe or not. But since holding demonstration events usually meant adding equivalent operational expense as if they were official, the International Olympic Committee discontinued them.

Now, without a demonstration step, sports and event disciplines can become an official Olympic sport without any similar testing, or proof of appeal on an Olympic level. And combined with a new vision of "increasing its appeal to younger sports fans", this has meant new sports being seemingly suddenly added that may be jarring to Olympic purists.

Some changes have integrated well: beach volleyball (officially added at Atlanta 1996) and rugby sevens (Rio 2016) have been marked successes. Snowboarding (Nagano 1998) is a massive hit today, despite initial concern, proving any purists' hesitations wrong.