Crowds at the Olympics

[edcrbnsoul]

I know they said its a Holiday, but there is noone there.
And even if it is a holiday in Greece shouldnt there be people from outside of the country there. I figured while I was watching volleyball, OK maybe its just not popular over there, but then when womans gymnastics came on and there wasnt 1000 people in the place I was wow! I'll be curious to see how the crowds are today.

 

[Hillbeans]

I truly think part of the problem here with attendance is that people are afraid of a terrorist "incident".

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

There are a few more people there than it looks like. They are sitting in the upper section (cheaper seats) and the lower sections look almost vacant. They mentioned that they are considering moving the people in the upper sections down to fill the bottom....but it is really sad that there are so few people there. I would love to be there.

 

[Lanshark]

We lived through the Olympics in Atlanta a few years ago. Tickets are not cheap. In fact, gymnastics and swimming were very expensive.

I have viewed the Olympics much differently since then. It really removed the luster of an event I always have enjoyed.

 

[HollyJoy]

I had heard that the upper seats, also less expensive, are the ones filling up.

 

[monkeyboy]

Medal rounds seem to have bigger crowds

 

[Viking]

Originally posted by Hillbeans
I truly think part of the problem here with attendance is that people are afraid of a terrorist "incident".

Absolutely wrong - Even with the horrible events in Madrid there is not much fear of terrorism over here.

Main reason is the prices for the tickets/accomodations. Most people just thought it was far too expensive. Now they have lots of vacancies, i.e. German TAs offer really good deals on Last-Minute-trips, but now it's obviously too late.

 

[snoopy]

Originally posted by Viking
Absolutely wrong - Even with the horrible events in Madrid there is not much fear of terrorism over here.

Perhaps not for Europeans, but I bet the American attendance is down as a result of fear of terrorism.

Too bad. I'd love to be there. I'd feel safer in Greece than I do Washington, D.C.

 

[Lanshark]

The city hosting the Olympics experiences many stresses. The process is political and, IMO, somewhat corrupt. The inconviences of dealing with traffic and crowds are stressful. The cost to host the games is staggering. To top it all off, as I said previously, the ticket prices at many events are extremely inflated. The cost of accomodations are also extremely inflated. The country of Greece will be paying for the games, in one way or another, for many years.

 

[Grog]

I read on SI.com that many Greeks simply aren't interested in many of the sports being played.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Well gymnastics was just qualifying yesterday. People probably saved their money to see gymnastics when it really counts.

 

[Laz]

I have read that they had a similar problem in Korea, and the IOC made them give tickets away. I had also read that they shipped school children and ununiformed soldiers in just to fill the seats for the cameras.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

It is not just gymnastics though that has had attendance problems. The are not filling these stadiums, which are actually thousands of seats smaller than the Venues that were built in Australia and Atlanta.

Olympics-Empty stands worry Games chiefs, IOC
Sun 15 August, 2004 10:42

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Attendance at the Athens Olympics has been disappointing during the first two days but organisers said on Sunday they hope ticket sales will pick up soon.

After falling short on a promise to sell about 65 percent of the total 5.2 million tickets by the Games opening, organisers said sales would rise as the Olympics become more exciting.

"Yes, attendance was not very high with less popular sports," spokesman Michael Zaharatos told reporters. "We never hid the fact that less popular sports and preliminary rounds would not be a full house."

Athletics, by far the Games' most popular event, has yet to start while most of Greece's medal hopes compete next week.

The 2000 Sydney Games, with almost double the total tickets available, were held mostly in front of capacity crowds.

On Saturday only a sparse crowd saw Turkish weightlifter Nurcan Taylan claim her historic gold at the 5,000-seat Nikea weightlifting stadium, while former world number one Venus Williams won her first round match in front of only a handful of die-hard fans in the new tennis arena.

The International Olympic Committee, concerned the Games' image could be tarnished if competitions are held in front of half-empty stands, raised the issue with organisers on Sunday.

"It (tickets issue) was briefly raised in this morning's meeting," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "The next few days we will see how ticket sales go up."

Total sales so far are about 2.9 million, mainly due to a sharp rise in daily sales -- about 90,000 -- over the past two weeks.

But organisers, who have insisted they have all but met their target revenue of 183 million euro ($224.3 million), still have 2.5 million unsold tickets.

While swimming events and some soccer matches have attracted large crowds other sports including softball and weightlifting have recorded disappointing attendance figures.

The beach volleyball stadium with a capacity of about 10,000 was largely empty all day Saturday until the Greece match when it almost filled up.

 

[binny]

Heard on the news this morning that out of 3 million tickets only 2 million have been sold. Also that the IOC is going to be giving tickets away to try to fill the stadiums!

How mad would you be if you paid full price and they gave the rest of the seats away? I know they arent cheap!


and snoopy ITA I think A LOT of Americans are staying because of terrorists concerns.
Also lodging was a concern with a few of my clients that had thought about it.

 

[GoofItUp]

I for one would have gone in an instant if I could have afforded it. I did check ticket prices - just out of curiousity - and decided that even if the trip to Greece had been do-able, I wouldn't have been able to see more than maybe one 'unpopular' event at the most. Not worth dealing with the crowds if you can't get in to see the competitions.

 

[vernon]

I think it has a lot to do with the ticket prices and the hotel prices. When I checked into the costs for the Barcelona Olympics the ticket costs were just ridiculous, the quick look I gave to the Athen's prices confirmed these games are similar. I don't think the events are helped if the host nation just sets out to ravage the tourists.

For Atlanta and Sydney you had countries that have much more participation in many of what are concidered "minor" sports and certainly the Aussies are a much more sporting nation than most all round.

I think it's sad that many athletes will compete in areas that are at less than 50% capacity. I think the organisers work on the principal they know they will sell out 40% of the stadium come what may with die hards supporters and friends/family so they jack the price up for the tickets to extract as much as they can from those certainties. IMHO it would be much better if they priced the tickets so they'd pick up a lot more "waivering" spectators who'd go and watch if the high prices didn't force them to cherry pick the events they REALLY want to see.