The slogan of the Athens games is ”Welcome home”. Unfortunately for organisers, home is where the majority of Athenians appear to have stayed during the opening weekend of the Olympics.
Attendances at many venues have been hugely disappointing for the first two days of competition, and the International Olympic Committee, concerned at the negative effect of banks of empty seats appearing on TV screens around the world, has raised the matter with Athens organisers.
There was an anti-climactic feel to the start of competition at some venues, following the dramatic and well-received opening ceremony of the games’ official opening on Friday night in front of a sellout 77 000 crowd.
Preliminary rounds of the boxing took place with just a 10th of the seats in the 8Â 200 Peristeri arena occupied, and fewer than 400 attended the table tennis at the 6Â 000-seat Galatsi Hall.
The start of the men’s cycling road race around the centre of the Greek capital saw a respectable attendance but the route was largely unlined, perhaps because of the steaming temperatures, up to 38C.
While the swimming events, the showpiece of the opening week of competition, have taken place in front of almost full houses, softball and even beach volleyball have recorded disappointing attendance figures.
Athenians have shown a willingness to follow the home team, but seem reluctant to get behind their visitors. The beach volleyball stadium, which houses 10Â 000, was largely empty on Saturday until the Greece match when it was almost full.
On Saturday only a sparse crowd saw the Turkish weightlifter Nurcan Taylan claim her historic gold at the 5Â 000-seat Nikea weightlifting stadium, while the former tennis world number one Venus Williams won her first round match in front of only a handful of diehard fans in the new tennis arena.
The absence of the expected rush of tourists, many of them scared off by security fears and the high price of accommodation, has also contributed to low attendances. Australians seem the exception to the rule, providing vocal support at the pool.
Athoc, the Athens organisation of the Olympic games committee, conceded that they have 2,5-million unsold tickets and have failed to meet their promise to sell 65% of the total 5,2-million tickets by the time the Games opened, but they predicted that sales would rise as the Olympics become more exciting. Total sales so far are about 2,9-million, mainly due to a sharp rise in daily sales — about 90Â 000 — over the past two weeks.
In a defensive move they declined to predict the total number of tickets sold, relying instead on a revenue target of €183-million that they say is 98% met.
They also denied reports that free tickets were being given away to coax people into the venues, something that South Korean organisers resorted to at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Before the Games they insisted they would not give tickets away.
”Attendance was not very high with less popular sports,” said spokesperson Michael Zaharatos. ”We never hid the fact that less popular sports and preliminary rounds would not be a full house.”
The empty seats contrasted with the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where most events were held in front of capacity crowds. – Guardian Unlimited