SOCOG officials today said that they are "asking volunteers to fill some of the empty seats at venues" during competition at the Sochi Games, according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. About 70% of tickets "were sold prior to the event," but with "some venues having empty seats due to fans arriving late, tight security checks and departing Russian spectators, organizers want to make sure the pictures broadcast around the world show full stadiums." Some venues have had a surplus of empty seats at events "where Russian fans pack in to see one of their athletes but leave after they have competed." The stands at the men's ski jumping event yesterday "were about 85 percent full," but after Russian Mikhail Maksimochkin finished his two jumps, "hundreds of Russian fans immediately began streaming towards the exits." The stands were "half empty" by the end of the competition (REUTERS, 2/10). SOCOG VP/Communications Alexandra Kosterina said, "We've had some problems with, basically, the Russian mentality. Russians like to come to the event not prior, but as close as possible. And that is why, indeed, we had a lot of issues of spectators being late to the Games. We're working on it" (NATIONAL POST, 2/9). In Denver, John Meyer noted the 7,500-seat stadium at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Center for the men’s downhill yesterday "was about half full at the start of the race." But the problem "wasn’t lack of interest, it was slowdowns due [to] transportation and security delays." By the end of the race, the "bleachers were almost full" (DENVERPOST.com, 2/9).
EMPTY SEATS ACROSS VENUES: The Sochi Games sold out of all of its tickets for the third day of competition, and SOCOG President & CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko said he expects sell-outs to continue in the days ahead. “All the venues are full, absolutely full,” Chernyshenko said during a sponsor event on Monday (Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer). But the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Orwall, Terlep & McKay report after the first days of competition in Sochi, it "looks like empty seats could become the problem child of the Games." A few events Saturday "played to virtual sellout crowds and enthusiastic spectators," notably biathlon and team figure skating. But other venues in both the Olympic Park and the "so-called 'mountain cluster' high above Sochi were plagued by sometimes large swaths of empty seats." There also were "a lot of echoes in the empty corners of the arenas for events such as women's hockey and speedskating." Slopestyle snowboarding appeared to have "hundreds of empty seats, even though organizers declared it a sellout" in the 6,250-seat Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. The long-track speedskating venue, Adler Arena, "offered one of Saturday's marquee events: the men's 5,000-meter race." Yet "even at its peak, the crowd never seemed to fill more than three-quarters of the 8,000 seats." At the moguls venue in the mountains on Saturday night, officials "put the crowd at about 3,000 -- well short of the listed capacity of 4,500." Some of the "lackluster attendance has come during preliminary competitions, which many fans, sponsors and even members of national sporting federations prefer to skip" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/10). In DC, Dave Sheinin wrote if any of the "many Sochi problems bears watching as the Games go on, it is attendance." The slopestyle competition was "about a quarter full for much of the day." And at the Iceberg Skating Palace -- where team figure skating, another new competition, was "perhaps the day’s marquee event -- barely half the 12,000 seats were full at the start, although the arena eventually filled to near capacity by the end" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/9). Despite early turnout, organizers expressed "satisfaction regarding early ticket sales." Kosterina said, "On the number of seats, 92% of tickets available were sold [Saturday], so if we talk about the actual turnout it was probably 81%. We think 92% is a pretty good figure" (LATIMES.com, 2/9).
NOT WORTH THE COST? The AP's John Leicester wrote although these "are early days at Russia's first Winter Games, indications are that some would-be spectators from overseas have stayed home, seemingly scared off by terrorist bombings, pervasive security, knotty Russian bureaucracy and the big bucks needed to reach" Sochi. Some Olympic venues "have a very Russian feel." For example, figure-skating crowds "seem to be almost exclusively Russian." Sochi organizers said that "about 40,000 people attended events on Day 1, but 4,000 others who had tickets did not turn up." Organizers said that 70% of tickets "went to Russians, with the rest sold abroad" (AP, 2/9).
