Organisers of the Athens Olympics admitted on Thursday that fewer than half of the 5,3-million tickets for the event have been sold, raising the prospect that athletes will perform before sparsely filled stadiums.
Although royals and world leaders, including Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and George Bush senior, will be present during the course of the games, continuing concerns over security, the sluggish international economy and the high value of the euro are being blamed for deterring spectators.
On Thursday the Athens organising committee conceded that more than three million tickets have yet to be sold, but also announced that an additional 1 000 tickets are being made available for the opening and closing ceremonies. At this stage, ticket sales for the Sydney games had surpassed 75%.
Before the figures were released, the games’ chief organiser, Gianna Angelopoulos, said the authorities were hoping for a last-minute rush for tickets, and that sales had increased in the past week to around 12 000 to 13 000 a day.
”We expect that people will buy tickets on the day, or a few days before events, at kiosks outside venues,” he said. ”The fact is we have sold the most expensive tickets. Over 85% of our target revenues have been met.”
However, in another sign of the poor turnout, hoteliers have been forced to reduce their prices to help fill about 5 000 unbooked beds.
Massively inflated room rates — sometimes five times higher than normal — have been cited as the reason why many Olympic fans either returned tickets or refused to buy them at all. Tourists have also been put off.
In the US, which traditionally produces the biggest number of Olympic spectators, Cartan Tours, one of two companies officially designated to sell tickets for the games, said last week that sales were around 20% lower than for the Sydney games.
There is now a real fear among some sponsors that athletes in new Olympic disciplines, such as triathlon, trampoline and Taekwon Do, may compete before a handful of fans.
The Greek government has reacted to the poor sales with a massive advertising campaign in the media and on the streets.
Much of the blitz appeals to Greek pride and what is now being billed as a ”once in a lifetime” experience of the Olympics returning to its ancient birthplace.
Highlighting the safety concerns, a Nato battalion specialised in weapons of mass destruction began deploying in Greece on Thursday. Patrols were also stepped up on the ground, in the skies and at sea.
The arrival of the unit, the first major mission of the alliance’s new specialist Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Task Force, came as Patriot air-defence missile batteries were set up around Athens to shoot down any rogue plane that strays into the capital’s airspace.
”We are very near completing the world’s biggest ever security operation,” Colonel Lefteris Economou, the Greek security spokesperson,said. ”By next week all the venues will be locked down and each one of the 70 000 security personnel in place.”
But with security costs rocketing, a growing number of Greeks fear they will be footing the bill for decades.
This week, the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, estimated that Athens had spent around 1,2-billion euros safeguarding the games — ”four times more than Sydney” which hosted the last summer Olympics in 2000.
Ironically, tickets for the Athens Olympic are some of the cheapest ever. Mindful of low Greek salaries, organisers ensured that most tickets were affordably priced, with around 90% costing between €10 and €30. – Guardian Unlimited