Aichi-Nagoya 2026 plans to house athletes in hotels

2026 Asian Games organisers are looking to house athletes in nearby hotels after scrapping plans to build an athletes’ village.

Aichi-Nagoya in Japan will host the multi-sport event in three years’ time, with the latest Asiad having concluded in Hangzhou, China earlier this week.

2026 organisers announced changes to their plans earlier this year due to rising construction costs. The most eye-catching decision was to cancel the construction of an athletes’ village because an estimated construction cost of $220m had doubled.

Speaking to Inside The Games, Aichi-Nagoya 2026 acting director general Yasuhiro Nakamori said the situation is a “challenge,” particularly regarding security and athlete preparations.

“With the athletes’ village not being constructed, our idea is to use existing hotels,” Nakamori told Inside The Games. “We are trying to get the hotels near to the venue.

“The difficulty is for the meals and the service for the different delegations.

“[There will be] almost 100 so controlling it will be very difficult but we did not construct an Athletes’ Village because it is very expensive.

“We are in discussion [with the hotels] and considering the security aspect. It’s not easy to keep a high level of security.”

Increased budget

The athletes’ village was to have been built on the former site of the Nagoya racetrack to accommodate about 10,000 people. The athletes’ housing facilities would have been temporary, and were set to be disassembled after the Games. At a meeting of the Organising Committee’s directors in April, Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura, who chairs the committee, said that construction would be cancelled.

The 2026 Games originally had a budget of $650m, two-thirds of which would have been swallowed up by athletes’ village costs. The budget has already been revised to almost $1bn and is set to rise even higher with officials having accepted that the cost of materials and wages requires additional money.

The 2026 Games will be staged in the Aichi prefecture and its capital city, Nagoya. Paloma Mizuho Stadium, which is currently being renovated and expanded, will host both the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics.