I have noticed the large amount of people at most of the events disguised as chairs. In fact during some of the events, noticeably volleyball, the arena is maybe a third to a quarter full. They were talking about this tonite on ABC World News Now. Lots and lots of open seats to be filled. The fear of terrorism, and the fact that alot of Greeks are on vacation to get away from the mess in Athens are contributing to the problem. Athens Mayor was asked about giving away tickets and she said she would not because that would not be fair to the people that bought tickets. I understand there is a commercail campaign now running in Greece that asks Greeks to be patriotic and to purchase more tickets. Its really sad to see so many unfilled chairs at so many venues.

Maybe more people would turn out for the Games if the athletes competed as they did in ancient times--nude. I'd fly over.

It was discussed on the NBC and CBS TV news shows as well. Some of the tickets are $200 each.

Why don't they try selling them on eBay? There's a French eBay and a German eBay. Is there a Greek eBay too?

Everything will sell; you just have to find the right price.

From GamesBids.com Looks like they are trying everything they can to boost the attendance. They have sold over 3 million tickets out 5 million but they are still having a problem with the attendance.

I heard a spokesperson say that they would not give away tickets or offer discounts as it 'wasn't fair' to people who had paid full price.

This is no surprise.......it's a big holiday time for the Greeks. It has nothing to do with terrorism......that's a convenient excuse. It's very expensive to fly to (and stay in) Athens. There still has been a good chunk of the countries supporters at each event I've watched though.

Athens is also only like 3 million people and the entire country is 10 million. That's not very big at all and it doesn't help that Greece is mainly surrounded by water with no real easy access.

Anyone involved with the Olympics could tell you back in 2000 that there will probably be more empty seats than usual at these Olympics.

After getting off to a slow start it looks like Athenians are starting to show up for the games. I turned on rowing this morning and the stands that are normally empty at the 500m mark were full of fans. Other events seem to have larger crowds. Athens officials report they are a little under 2 million euro short of their goal of 183 million euro ticket sales.

This is turning out to be an incredible Olympics. The venues and images alone are making it worthwhile. I was in Athens in May visiting a friend who works for the Olympics and the city has really come together since my visit.

The reason the stands are filling up is that they are starting to bus in school kids and communitty groups as well as discounting tickets in order to fill some of the seats...

A couple of previous Olympics have done this too when the seats didn't get filled...

I think a major problem is that Greece hasn't fielded a real powerhouse Olympic team - why should Greeks go in order to chear - somebody else....

I agree about the photography and the cultural stuff though - makes me want to go...

[ August 19, 2004, 08:49 PM: Message edited by: ITJock ]

Maybe the reason that the venues are so empty is the fact that 44.9% of Greeks aged 15 and over smoke. eek!

I read this in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated. Apparently, smoking is allowed in all stadiums. gag!

Looks like the days of empty seats are gone. Track and Field, the largest venue of them all, appears full for the finals and pretty full for the prelims. My friend who is in Athens tells me the ticket sales have really picked up with more people attending the events. ACOG officials have not discounted the tickets, citing unfairness to those who bought tickets at full price. This is turning out to be an incredible Olympics even after we said the Greeks couldn't pull it off.

I dont know if anyone remembers this, but I remember one of the Olympics in Asia- it was either Seoul or Nagano- where the locals who attended the events were given some flags of other countries to root for in the stands when their country wasn't in competition.

I think that was really terrific of the local committees to do something like that and it would have been interesting early on to see if the Athenians would have done the same. I think the Asian countries had to do it simply because travel to those countries is so much more expensive. I wonder if they will do something similar in Beijing.

P.S. Future Olympic Committees: Please disband synchronized swimming and race walking as events in the Olympics. Especially the race walking- looked like they were running the whole time.

Swimming and Track and Field are the glamour sports of the summer games. It's not surprising that those events would be sold out. But from what I can see attendance is still lagging at other venues. I watched volleyball yesterday and women's soccer today, and the seas of empty seats at both sites was rather disconcerting.

NOTE TO THE IOC: If you want to all but guarantee a full house for all events in 2012 COME TO NEW YORK!

Those same seas of empty seats were also prevalent in Atlanta for the less glamorous events so Athens is no anamoly. Note that London is trying to win their bid by promising seats to school children " London 2012 To Give Away Free Tickets - GamesBids.com. Beach volleyball is showing full stands for the later games and softball was all but sold out.

Not sure what it would take to please people but I don't think it really matters so long as Athens met their ticket budget, which they did without discounting tickets. BTW, I don't think even NYC could sell out Synchro Swimming or Table Tennis.

Besides the fact the games were held in August when most Athenians leave the city, the first weekend of the games was a major Greek Orthodox holiday - The Assumption of the Virgin Mary. And yes, many visitors stayed away because of all the press about terrorism. Hotels were not filled. Friends of mine were renting out their apartment in Athens but their reservations were cancelled three times because the guests were scared to attend because of terrorism. And Athens has one of the top-rated airports in the world, so I think that qualifies for good access. Also Greeks are interested in different sports. The rhythmic gymnastic competitions have been sold out but not the regular gymnastic competitions. The main thing is that the Games have been successful and it looks like everyone is having a great time.

As a follow-up, I just read that by Thursday the Athens Olympics sold 3.5 million tickets. They have surpassed total tickets sold for Seoul and Barcelona.

If they marketed it in Chelsea, they'd probably have a waiting list. Rhythmic gymnastics too! wink

Seeing just a glimpse of what the Republican convention is doing (and it hasn't even started yet!) to the city, I want the Olympics as far away from here as possible. Unless I could sublet my apartment for some small fortune...Okay on second thought, bring 'em on! :cool:

Why would the IOC agree to give the games to Athens if the entire population of Athens vacations during the month of August? Seems like it common enough knowledge that somebody in some decision-making capacity would have been privy to such information. Couldn't the games have been held in July or September instead? With some of these events, I've seen more people at Civil War veterans reunions.

I think the Athens organizers were concerned about congestion. Not too long ago, traffic in Athens was horrendous. They even had to control the amount of cars entering the city center. Usually problems with transportation gets a lot of bad press and the games get a reputation, as in the case of Atlanta. But Athens also did some great work by expanding the subway system and building tram lines. Also, the end of August is usually cooler and dryer than July and the beginning of August, but you can't control the weather as the heat didn't cooperate. NBC didn't want the games in Sept, because the ratings for Sydney were lower than expected, and those games took place in Sept. I also read today that tickets sales have now reached 3.55 million.