Why are there so many empty seats at Olympic events?

Question

In October 2007, Beijing Olympic organizers said all 6.8 million tickets to events were sold out for the first time in 112 years of Summer Games (from Businessweek.com). I know that most of the tickets were sold domestically (in China), so why are we seeing so many empty seats at the events? And why are so many people trying desperately to buy tickets on the street without any luck?

Answer 1

NASCAR isn't a Olympic event.

Answer 2

I think it's because of the rain. Beijing is in the very Northern part of China and constantly rains. Thus, people don't want to be soaked wet staying at the stadium. But I'm guessing these people stay home to watch the game.

Answer 3

Of course it is all speculation, but a lot of people just aren't showing up. If you watch the big events, the seats are pretty full, but things like ping-pong are pretty empty.

Another guess is that they have tickets for the day at the venue but are out doing other things while the preliminaries are going on and will show up for the finals, or they go early and then leave early to do other things or see other events.

Answer 4

according to the organisers this is not true !!!! They must have ALL gone to the toilet at the same time.

Apparently it's a sell out (sic!)

Answer 5

Because most buyers are Chinese and so most of them only go to cheer on their home country athletes. So most of them leave after the events the Chinese athletes are in. And also why no luck on the streets because they only go for 2-3 hours to watch. And I don't think they would like to watch some runner from Canada/U.S.

:)

Answer 6

i've heard on the news that people & companys sold fake tickets!!!!!

shocking, don't ya think??

Answer 7

Because some seats are for the reporters. Also some Chinese from other province holding tickets but have troubling on travelling to Beijing now due to the security reason.

Answer 8

The avg ticket price is actually very affordable and that might have been the problem. Here is what I've read. When the tickets came on sale, people who were not interested would buy tons of tickets hoping to resell for way over face value. Since the tickets were so cheap, they can buy much more. However, due to people worried about buying fake tickets on the street, most of the tickets bought for resale were wasted because no one want to risk spending 5 times the face value to buy a fake ticket.

Answer 9

Fan frustration grows over ticket issues - Half-empty venues and sky-high prices are souring Olympic faithful

Answer 10

bcuz not everyone can afford to go???

Answer 11

It's all a matter of interest. And there's probably no one who wants to tell their ticket/it's illegal and you could get in a lot of trouble especially in China for doing so.

Answer 12

why do you care ?

Answer 13

Who wants to pay thousands to watch someone lip sync?

Answer 14

Because the people are actually there, they are invisible. If you had Invisible goggles you could see them. but you don't.

Answer 15

A couple of reasons.  For starters, not all ticket holders are interested in all events.  People will attend the events they want to.  Another thing, it's no secret that the games are not actually sold out, the Chinese government is just saying that.

Answer 16

I believe that when they said "sold out" that includes giving out tickets to corporate, school and other organizations. So it is normal if the stadium is not full.

I think they do have the biggest crowd in all events. It is not easy to make sure all events to be at 80% full. I guess it's not that difficult to get someone to the stadium given that you have 1.3 billion people to choose from.