Charles Barkley Says Tokyo 2020 Olympics Should Be Moved to the U.S. Over Coronavirus: 'We Already Have the Stadiums'

Charles Barkley has suggested the 2020 Olympic Games should be moved to the U.S. if Japan can't host them due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The games are scheduled to be held in Tokyo between July 24 and August 9 but their fate appears increasingly in doubt as the world battles to contain COVID-19.

Last week, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach insisted the Games would go ahead as planned and urged athletes to prepare as normal.

However, with several sporting events across the world being called off or played behind closed doors, the threat of the Olympics falling victim to the coronavirus remains very real.

Japan has reported more than 500 cases with nine deaths and over 100 people recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the outbreak using combined data sources.

Speaking on The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday morning, the NBA on TNT analyst suggested the IOC should consider moving the Olympics to the U.S. instead of canceling them.

"They shouldn't cancel the Olympics, they should move the Olympics to the United States," he said.

"It wouldn't be fair on the people who have been trying for basically the last four years. They should move them [the Olympics] to the United States.

"We have already got all the stadiums. [...] We can do it in L.A., we can do it in Chicago, we can do it in New York. We have already got all the stadiums built."

With the exception of the two world wars, the Olympics have never been canceled since beginning in their modern guise in 1896.

Even at the peak of Cold War tensions, the event proceeded as planned. In 1980, the Moscow Games were boycotted by the U.S. and another 65 countries, before the Soviet Union and numerous other communist nations returned the favor four years later in Los Angeles.

Barkley, who was part of the Dream Team that won the gold medal at the 1992 games in Barcelona and repeated the feat four years later in Atlanta, insisted it would be wrong to deny athletes the opportunity of a lifetime.

"There's people whose all lives revolve around the Olympics and I just don't think it would be fair to cancel them," he explained.

"Even when we boycotted the Olympics, that really wasn't fair on a lot of people."

The so-called "Home City Contract" the Olympics governing body, the Japanese Olympic Committee and the city of Tokyo signed in 2013 stipulates that the IOC has plenty of grounds to cancel the Games, should it see fit to proceed.

Japan's Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto referred to the 81-page document on Tuesday, when she suggested the Games could be postponed until the end of the year.

"The IOC has the right to cancel the games only if they are not held during 2020," Hashimoto told parliament.

"This can be interpreted to mean the games can be postponed as long as they are held during the calendar year. We are doing all we can to ensure that the games go ahead as planned."

Earlier this month, Dick Pound, the IOC's longest-serving member, admitted organizers had three months to decide whether the games would go ahead as planned.

He also warned the idea of postponing the Games was fanciful at best.

"You just don't postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics. There's so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can't just say, we'll do it in October," he said during an interview with The Associated Press.

Over 4,000 people have died since the outbreak of coronavirus began in Wuhan, a city located in China's central Hubei province, late last year.

As this map provided by Statista shows, there are over 114,000 cases globally with 64,000 recovered.

Games in the Champions League and the Spanish and French soccer leagues will go ahead without fans for the next two weeks, as authorities look to control the virus.

In a memo directed to teams last week, the NBA hinted the same fate could apply to its 30 franchises.

The idea was rubbished by LeBron James, who dismissed plans of playing without fans. While Barkley sounded more accommodating than the four-time MVP, he suggested the decision would pose a major logistical problem.

"If those fans don't go the games, are they gonna stay in their houses forever?," he said.

"Are they gonna go to work, are they gonna go to dinner or just because they don't go to NBA games or sporting events are they gonna go stay in their house for the rest of their lives?"