Maybe this belongs in another forum but here goes…
The Olympics are being held in the most populous country in the world. Before the start we were seeing shots of mobs of Chinese people trying to buy tickets and being turned away. Why then are the venues so empty? Even the most popular events like gymnastics finals seem to have plenty of empty seats.
This has got me so confused I almost put it in the Pit. My wife is sick of my cries of dismay whenever the cameras pan the rows of empty seats. I can’t figure it out. Someone please put me out of my misery…
The local NBC affiliate does a live feed interview every morning with a pool reporter (evening in China). This question came up today. The response was a typical “talking points” answer in that many visitors are constantly shuffling among different venues, have a few favorite sports, the heat and humidity, yadda, yadda. There was a bit of chit-chat between the local reporter here in the US and the pool reporter about other Olympics topics.
Then the pool reporter let it slip. Apparently the Chinese have a targeted visitor count of 200,000 visitors through the turnstiles everyday, but the actual numbers are barely 40,000. So there is a subtle push by the Chinese to literally find locals on the street and get them inside the various Olympic venues just to put bums on seats.
As **Telemark ** implies, people who get free tickets handed to them aren’t as likely to go as people who are willing to wait in long lines and pay premium prices for tickets.
The government is training people to bus in and fill seats as “cheering squads,” teaching them how to cheer.
The Chinese government has been criticized for holding back too large a proportion of tickets for sale within China; families of the foriegn athletes have had difficulty getting tickets to see their family members compete. People who were unable to buy tickets after sellouts are angry to see so many seats going empty.
I heard a piece on the radio the other day about how sponsors who have paid for advertising inside the venues, and also vendors who paid big bucks for booths in the secured areas are complaining because they are not getting nearly as much traffic as they were promised.
The commentators mentioned that the strict security measures in place to prevent disruptions are actually causing people to stay away rather than go through the hassle.
On the other hand, my wife heard an interview with a corporate sponsor who said his buses to the games were full. Either he is more clever than the rest, or the sponsor tickets don’t explain it.
I’ve seen the empty seats in pretty high prestige events, so I can’t imagine these are from lot of people wandering off the see the tiddly wink matches.
I’m pretty sure the London Games will be well attended. We get into events like this here, witness Euro '96. People will be killing each other for tickets to to the 62kg weightlifting.
It’s not quite the same. In 2004 tickets were available to many events; there were lots of events that were not sellouts.
In 2008 every event is technically a sellout, in the sense that there are no tickets for sale through any official source. But many people who have tickets are choosing not to show up, for various reasons.