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| Europe |
| Olympics: Public "Staying Away in Droves" |
| 2004-08-16 |
| Games chiefs ready to give away tickets By Paul Hayward in Athens The Olympics came home to Greece at the weekend but nobody was in. Three days into the 28th modern Olympiad, officials in Athens are under pressure from the International Olympic Committee to paper the city with free tickets if necessary to solve the growing crisis of low turn-outs. Broadcasters cringed as television audiences around the world saw tennis, weightlifting, hockey and gymnastics played out in half-empty stadiums. Even last night's main attraction - the clash of the two young Titans of the pool, Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps - failed to sell out as Athenians declined to buy into the rhetoric of the great Olympic homecoming. Many have supported a more modern Greek tradition by fleeing to the holiday islands. (more) |
| Posted by:mojo |
| #30 The games are still fun for me to watch. I like to compare successful athletic attitudes against attitudes that that guarantee failure. Usually, I use the USA men's gymnastics team in the summer games and watch the USA men's figure-skating team a case studies in doom. Allow me to provide an example. This summer two of the USA men's gymnasts found out in practice that several elements of their high-bar routines weren't going to be graded as highly as anticipated. Faced with this eventuality, one gymnast, Blaine Wilson, who I have been watching for three Olympics, decided that he would replace the element with the most difficult element he could come up with, one that I'm pretty sure he never successfully completed in practice. The result of his strategy was a flying face plant that knocked him out of the pommel horse as well as his sub-9 score on the bar. His decision to make himself the Eddie the Eagle of the Summer Games forced another guy who had not practiced the pommel horse to step up and run a routine cold. Team America is on again tonight. I asked my wife to tape it for me. Note: if you want to see a successful team attitude, check out the Chinese women. After their best gymnast had a bobble on the balance beam I saw her go down to her circle of teammates and perform a silly imitation of her mistake. They all burst out in giggles. I am betting they perform pretty well under the gun. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-16 9:44:04 PM |
| #29 We'll see... maybe these games will get their due late... maybe during the Marathon! Aris how come they didn't (or did they?) use the original route? Hell it seem purdy damn natural for PR to me. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-16 7:43:59 PM |
| #28 Ships right. Who was that one 3CP guy, "Worlds Fastest White Guy!"? Prolly finished just out of the medals? No worry eLarson, Seafarious is a girl and could care less about sports.) |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-08-16 7:34:35 PM |
| #27 Oops... I guess it was on Limbaugh... as I would have noted had a read the rest of the posts (#5) more carefully before typing. /oops |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-08-16 6:41:06 PM |
| #26 Heard a quote earlier today (Limbaugh?): "Can you imagine the ratings if Al-Qaeda had an Olympic team?" |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-08-16 6:39:54 PM |
| #25 Botton Line: Without the Cold War it's Track & Field. :( Sometimes I miss the USSR (for about a minute) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-16 6:32:07 PM |
| #24 too true, but what makes you think that I think that only men are sports fans? Was it my comment about AG Reno and her remarkable little boy thing. Wonder if Elian got any lap time with Janet before he got evaluated for the Cuban sports acadamy? Or was it my implying that sports media marketers focus on a PC beauty contest rather than nitty gritty stuff. Sort of like the mags you seee at the checkout stands of your normal supermarket. Super models, dressed so modestly, with a headline like "Learn the 3 Things He Likes," so guys will buy the rag? "UffDa, what three things?" More a girl thing, no? Beach volleyball? Yeah, I could believe Auziland going bonkers at such a hip, laidback, skinsy sport, But serious sport compared to say, Boxing, racing, wrestling, not for me, I'd rather watch cheerleading comp. Bah indeed, to true. The Olympics have been PC/feminized almost to death. Of course women love sports as much as men, equal! Thats why the F#&king games aren't being watched! And as for the good sport aspects, I still think SK hates us due Apollo Ono's speed skating victory. You want a sell out!? Try pistols at twenty paces, or last man standing. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-08-16 6:00:34 PM |
| #23 If they rounded up all the beggars like they originally proposed, they could be sued as an audience for some venues - well ventilated ones would be more appropriate. It will be sort of ironic that you can get a free ticket to an event and then be ejected for wearing a pirated tee-shirt. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-16 5:08:55 PM |
| #22 The "palestinians" have a team? I thought you had to be a country to enter the Olympics. Who's next? The Houyhnhnms? |
| Posted by: BH 2004-08-16 4:44:02 PM |
| #21 And seeing people applauding frenetically when the Palestinian team marched in hasn't really been that helpful. Well, that certainly seems to confirm a definite lack of American attendance. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-08-16 4:33:20 PM |
| #20 Ahh, I thought these were for the male competitions only, obviously they apply to male and females... Then again, I'm no longer the Olympic fan I used to be. I lost the spirit in 1972. And seeing people applauding frenetically when the Palestinian team marched in hasn't really been that helpful. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-08-16 4:08:13 PM |
| #19 ... So, Aris - get your butt to the beach! That's probably the best advice |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-08-16 3:59:05 PM |
| #18 I checked it out: ALL female beach volleyball games are sold out (not the male ones). TGA - Where were you looking? According to the official site there are seats left for every remaining session (only the greyed-out prices represent sold-out ticket types), some at the bargain price of 20 euros! Seems pretty miraculous, if you ask me! |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-08-16 3:57:41 PM |
| #17 Drug scandals combined with Olympic committe bribery scandals and the whole thing starts to look like the UN General Assembly after awhile. No wonder few take it seriously these days. They need to trim down the events instead of always adding new ones and they should stop playing political games with who can send athletes. Why do Puerto Rico and Palestine have teams but the Basques, Quebequios, and Kurds do not? What criteria do they use to decide? |
| Posted by: yank 2004-08-16 3:46:27 PM |
| #16 I checked it out: ALL female beach volleyball games are sold out (not the male ones). Sorry Athens... They still have tickets for the closing ceremony: 500 or 750 Euro.... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-08-16 3:45:01 PM |
| #15 200 Euro for swimming tickets Geebus... screw that... Baseball is your best entertainment value. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-16 3:22:01 PM |
| #14 You've got to take the foil of first, Aldo! |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-08-16 3:10:05 PM |
| #13 As seen on Allahvision: News Flash for Aldo Montano: if you can taste it, it ain't gold... |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-08-16 3:04:09 PM |
| #12 Many have supported a more modern Greek tradition by fleeing to the holiday islands. Sounds like Boston during the DNC, which is what we were told to do. Then the pols all bitched afterwards that the city didn't make any money off of it because all the residents blew town. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-08-16 2:36:05 PM |
| #11 Maybe the men were....ummm.. standing up? |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-08-16 2:31:36 PM |
| #10 That's funny... the women's beach volleyball event looked pretty well-attended. ;) No! I still saw some empty seats. Couldn't believe it! |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-08-16 2:27:48 PM |
| #9 That's funny... the women's beach volleyball event looked pretty well-attended. ;) |
| Posted by: BH 2004-08-16 2:14:54 PM |
| #8 In the light of this article posted at Rantburg I might reconsider... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-08-16 2:13:32 PM |
| #7 Its also possible Americans are staying away because they were warned not to appear to American and because they've been reading about how much the Europeans hate us for over a year now. That's part of it, at least insofar as Americans go. Certainly, I and others I know have turned down offers to speak at technical conferences in Europe this year. Not worth the hassle. I might take up India on their request for the spring, tho .... But lucky - what makes you think only men are sports fans? Bah. |
| Posted by: too true 2004-08-16 2:13:08 PM |
| #6 Biggest single factor, IMO: drug cheats. Who honestly isn't a cynic nowadays as regards athletes taking performance enhancing drugs? Hardly anyone. So what's the point going out to watch the sports when it seems half the time the winners fail a drugs test at some point down the line...? The scandal involving Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou has probably put the final nail in this Olympiad's coffin by reducing locals' turnout. I expect many Greeks are mighty pissed off. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-08-16 2:04:41 PM |
| #5 Rush Limbaugh noted that if al-Queda fielded a team, the ratings would skyrocket... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-08-16 1:59:55 PM |
| #4 I saw some rowing heats and it was like a mile of empty bleachers befor coming to the finish line. Where the bleachers had about twenty raving fanatics. I can't fault Greece for any of this. The Olympic bigshots have taken a once incredible event, that celebrated amatuer athletics and somewhat obscure events, and turned it into a stupid Super Bowl half time show. I saw the Mens road race through a sleeping city that could care less though. That race should have been out in the country side with a finish at some important spot. US media has been guilty for twenty years into turning the event into a PC beauty contest, suited more for women then sports fans. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-08-16 1:53:15 PM |
| #3 200 Euro for swimming tickets. Thanks but *definitely* no thanks. Will go and watch some baseball instead (Greece-Japan), which only costs 15 Euro. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-08-16 1:47:45 PM |
| #2 Its also possible Americans are staying away because they were warned not to appear to American and because they've been reading about how much the Europeans hate us for over a year now. The attendence has been falling for the last two olympics. Terrorism has something to do with it, but that's only part of the answer because the South Korean olympics had lower numbers than expected and that was pre 9/11. |
| Posted by: yank 2004-08-16 1:47:42 PM |
| #1 Maybe they're afraid of becoming convenient terrorist targets. Putting enough people in one spot would definitely get a terrorist's attention... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-08-16 1:38:37 PM |