Dismal attendance at Olympics

[Boris]

I'm watching the women's team gymnastics event and no one is in the stands. Such a shame as the gymnastics IMO are the most awesome event at the olympics. The Greeks have to be terribly disappointed. No doubt the threat of terrorism has kept most of the big spenders (Americans) at home.

On the positive side the NBC coverage has been pretty good. Showing lots of great athletics and minimizing the feely good human interest stories.

[Cyrus]

Relax. The tickets sold so far are about what Sydney has sold in the same amount of time into the Games. Thing is, seems the customers are concentrating their attention to the standard, popular sports. In 2000, the tickets were more evenly spread and you didn't have anything near an empty stadium. That was because Aussies, being the sports fanatics they are, were up at 8 am to go and watch a preliminary ping pong game between Sweden and Bulgaria (true story). No way this will happen in Athens!

But it seems true that the tourists have stayed away in droves, mostly because of the terror situtation, in general. Only ten days ago, two bombs exploded in a Turkish luxury hotel, with the obvious intent of killing as many tourists as possible!

[Martin Aigner]

Cyrus,

are you sure about the ping pong game between Sweden and Bulgaria? I didn´t know there was a team event in table tennis.

Agree with the rest. (As long as one understands that there is a huge political and religous difference betwenn Greece and Turkey)

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[Cyrus]

"Are you sure about the ping pong game between Sweden and Bulgaria?"

I happen to have read this morning about that 'un. It was a meet between a Swede and Bulgarian.

"Agree with the rest. (As long as one understands that there is a huge political and religous difference betwenn Greece and Turkey.)"

Well, the bombing in Istanbul scared away a lot of tourists from Greece, because of the proximity between the two countries - proximity in the minds rather than reality. But perception can be stronger than reality.

About the tickets, I keep reading some funny stuff: I see now that the event for ...canoe-cayak was sold out yesterday! Go figure.

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