Winter Olympics a Year Away, Nagano Copes With Cold Feet

The biathlon course sits under a blanket of newly fallen snow out on the edge of the village, finished at last. By fall, the new highway and express train route will be ready.

But as innkeeper Michio Sato looked out at a cloud of steam billowing up from the snow-rimmed hot spring that has been his family’s livelihood for three generations, he heaved a tired sigh.

“At first everybody was ecstatic when they heard the Olympics were coming,” said Sato, head of planning for the 1998 Winter Games in this quiet, two-traffic-light town. “Now, it’s more like we’re resigning ourselves to fate.”

On Feb. 7, 1998, the Winter Games descend on these slopes in the Japan Alps. With one year to go, Nagano is buried under an avalanche of squabbles over everything from budget overruns to hotel accommodations for picky foreign officials.

And as the countdown to the multibillion-dollar sports extravaganza ticks on, a hoped-for outburst of enthusiasm has been replaced by an outbreak of cold feet.

Nagano organizers have good reason to feel shell-shocked:

--Hockey officials, expecting high interest because NHL stars will be making their Olympic debut, complained the new hockey arena, built at a cost of $169 million, wasn’t big enough. They finally agreed in December to accept the arena with a capacity of 10,014, adding some temporary seats.

--The international alpine skiing federation has criticized the downhill course as too short, and wants the slalom moved from its present site to a venue about 40 miles away. Local officials are concerned about how much such a move would cost. Nagano recently agreed to move the venue for the combined slalom from Yamanouchi to Hakuba, putting it at the same site as the men’s and women’s combined downhill.

--The international figure skating federation has threatened to pull that centerpiece competition out of the Nagano region altogether unless its leaders are provided with better hotel accommodations during the games. Nagano organizers hope to reach a compromise by March.

The biggest concern by far, however, is the ever-swelling cost of the games.

After being picked as host in 1991, Nagano organizers estimated the games’ operating expenses would be around $644 million. The latest cost estimate put the bill at $800 million.

“In the midst of the current severe economic situation, all efforts are being made to secure revenues from such sources as broadcasting rights and sponsorship,” the organizing committee said in a December statement. “Simple yet efficient games operations will be implemented to minimize expenditures.”

Organizers have blamed their financial troubles on Japan’s stagnant economy and a prolonged plunge of the dollar against the yen, which cuts into the yen value of TV broadcasting rights and sponsorship contracts negotiated in dollars.

The exchange rate is about 118 yen to $1 now, compared with 135 yen in the bid in 1991. The yen was as high as 79 to the dollar in 1995.

They also note that the addition of snowboarding, curling and women’s ice hockey to the list of medal sports upped the Nagano bill. All were placed on the schedule in late 1995, almost five years after the games were awarded.

But Nagano’s Olympic burden goes far beyond just operating costs.

Not included on the organizing committee’s price-tag is the cost of building new venues--including a $127 million figure skating stadium, a $288 million speedskating arena and $72.8 million for a revamped ski jump.

The new highway and super-express train route, which will cut the travel time between Nagano and Tokyo in half, to about 90 minutes, also are separate, mega-budget projects.

The cost of building the venues is being split between the local and national governments. But host sites will have to foot the bill for the facilities’ upkeep--which for Nagano city alone is expected to cost $17 million a year.

“It is like we’ve bought ourselves the Great Wall of China,” said Juichiro Imai, a former Nagano city council member.

Olympic supporters argue that such criticisms are shortsighted, and that hosting the games will put Nagano’s many ski resorts on the international tourism map.

“We want to show the world what we have to offer,” said Nozawa Mayor Tetsuo Kubota. “We want to make our village an international resort as soon as possible.”

Many local businessmen doubt that will ever happen. If anything, they say, the Olympics could scare the tourists away.

“Skiers will stay home or go someplace else because they don’t want to get tied up in Olympic crowds or traffic jams,” said Tadayoshi Yamazaki, who owns a small gift shop.

Like most other businesses in this village about 1 1/2 hours from Nagano by train, his income depends on skiers and hot springs bathers on overnight trips. The Olympics will coincide with the height of next year’s tourist season--which Yamazaki said he expects to be disastrous.