Why are we hearing nothing much about the Olympics? They are only one month away! Are you hearing much?

Question

8/8/08 is when they start.....have heard almost zero about them.

Are there other more serious issues?

Answer 1

You didn't hear?

They've been cancelled due to lack of interest. Apparently ticket sales, especially to the Opening Ceremony were so bad the Chinese government was planning to bus in up to 75,000 people from the countryside to fill the empty spaces.

Instead they have cancelled and made a huge insurance claim for loss of income - estimated at around $6 billion.

Answer 2

they are trying to go green with them  they will go on when they are supposed to

Answer 3

Trust me - you'll be hearing a lot about them in the next month.

There were all sorts of stories about the problems with the torch run and protesting. But those have faded. Not much to report on now, except for how the competitions will be setting up.

The stories will multiply in the final two weeks. There will be special issues of the major sports magazines (SI, ESPN), special sections in the newspapers, etc. But remember that China is a long way away, and American audiences won't be quite as interested as they are when the Olympics are on this side of the ocean.

Answer 4

They talked about them today. They just had the US trials this past weekend.

Answer 5

Usually the Olympics are not as popular as the World Cup. I personally only watch the opening ceremonies. The rest is really boring.

Answer 6

The trials have been on a lot the last few days for track and field as well as swimming events.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I love the Olympics.

Answer 7

There's actually been quite a bit of "build up" to the Olympics in the US. The Olympic trials have got more coverage than ever before on UPN. NBC mentions them fairly often.

The reason, I think, for the impression that they're getting less play is that there just isn't the same "center" to the media that there once was.

In, say, 1996, it was impossible not be aware of the build-up to the Olympics, because a huge percentage of all of our entertainment and news came from three broadcast networks, one of which had plunked down a hefty pile of change for the right to cover the Olympics.

We've still got one network with a hefty pile of change on the line, but the networks just don't take up the same proporation of public-information bandwith that they once did. What with the huge array of cable stations, Internet sources, TIVO, etc. many people go weeks without even watching a network, with the possible exception of last week's episode of "The Office" with all the promotional stuff excised.

Answer 8

A lot more serious issues going on.

Answer 9

You're right.  It doesn't seem like the 'Big Deal' that they were of yesteryear.

I too attribute it to more serious issues going  on.