Empty Seats For “Sold-Out” Events Remain Baffling
As the first week of the Beijing Olympics concluded Friday, many seats remained empty in many venues, and it doesn’t appear to be the Athens problem of unused corporate-sponsor seats.
Many non-premium, nosebleed-type seats are going empty. That’s not unusual at Games, except that BOCOG announced in July that tickets to all Olympic events in Beijing were completely sold out.
A spot check of events suggests otherwise: The field hockey stadium when the U.S. played Germany was virtually empty; men’s volleyball Thursday night was played in front of maybe 3,000 people in an 18,000-seat stadium; even table tennis, a favorite among the Chinese, was not played before a full house on Thursday night.
Friday, in response to a question from SportsBusiness Journal’s Beijing Bureau, BOCOG executive vice president and general secretary Wang Wei insisted that all tickets have been sold.
“Tickets are out, and that’s for sure,” Wang Wei said in English.
But he acknowledged that many seats are empty. How? Why?
Ticket buyers in China may be giving tickets to friends “and they may come one time and not the other,” Wang said. He said some tickets allow a customer to watch two games, such as in basketball, and people end up coming late or leaving early under those circumstances, he said. That apparently occurred at field hockey Thursday, as a two-game session had China in Game 1 and most of the 17,000 seats filled. By the time the U.S. played Germany in the second game, the stadium had at most a couple thousand fans.
“It’s frustrating,” Reid Priddy, one of the stars of the U.S. men’s volleyball team, said of the smattering of fans at his team’s match Thursday night. “Very frustrating.”
Despite it being a “sellout,” BOCOG announced attendance of 5,700, far short of a sellout.
Corporate hospitality insiders said the mass of empty seats can’t be attributable to absent sponsor guests. They report good usage of their tickets, whether they be international or domestic sponsors.
Wayne Eldevik, who heads Maritz Inc.’s SME Olympic services unit, is operating the hospitality program for Bank of China, one of the larger BOCOG sponsors. He said a key focus during the past two years has been to make sure Bank of China’s tickets were effectively distributed, and added that it’s been working out.
“There are indeed large numbers of empty seats,” said Eldevik, a longtime Olympics hospitality operator. “Certainly far more than can be explained, if it is a sell-out, by normal attrition factors that are typical for various Olympic stakeholders.”
Eldevik said that in the run-up to the Games, it was evident to him that Beijing would not sell out. At various dates along the way not enough tickets were sold.
“Ultimately it’s all about the Chinese concept of ‘face,’” Eldevik said, “meaning these Games were always destined to be declared 100 percent sold out.”
Another ticketing frustration for tourist consumers is that despite the empty seats, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to buy tickets through legitimate outlets for tourists, who are scrambling via on-the-street scalpers, online services or classified ads.
Despite the alleged sellout, Wang Wei told reporters earlier this week that “cheerleaders” have been brought in to improve the atmosphere at some of the venues where spectators have stayed away. Basically, BOCOG has been padding attendance to replace “no-shows.”
This is no different than many large sporting events today and it's due in large part to the proliferation and sophiscitation of ticket brokers. Yes, the events are "sold out" because the brokers have bought all of the tickets. However, they obviously are having a much harder time reselling the tickets at the premium prices they want, particularly for the upper level seats. Go to any large, "sold-out" sporting event in the U.S. and you'll see sellers walking around with fists full of tickets, that they in turn got from the brokers, or are hired by the brokers to sell on the street the day of events.
Posted by: Mark McCauley / August 15, 2008 / 11:23 AM
This is the same thing I experienced attending the 1996 Atlanta games. To get tickets, we had to select up to 3 event choices per day, and were placed into a "lottery" to get tickets---same thing for hotels. When the actual events occurred, venues were not crowded and nor were restaurants & hotels. I moved from our original hotel to one in the city once I learned of openings. Popular events liking opening ceremonies & swimming were unaffordable in this system, let alone from a ticket broker. Travel was another issue. You had to plan far ahead to catch public transport to make it to the games on time. The other thing---its very tiring going to events every day. If I were to go again, I would plan to see fewer events instead of cramming 10 events into 8 days. I believe they should allow "self-ticket upgrade" where if half the event is over, the attendees (that did pay something) are allowed to move into closer seats to the action. If the real ticket holder shows up that late, then the person would just have to move. Or what about donating tickets to local sport clubs so kids/sport lovers can attend. I know the point for the IOC is to make money on the venues, but the Olympic Movement's point is to promote the sport---empty seats wont do that at any cost.
Posted by: Kathy / August 17, 2008 / 11:33 AM
My recollection is that even at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid there were event packagers that made you buy three events no one ever went to in order to get tickets for the event you sought and that there were many times choice events that were not well attended--but certainnly NOT an issue for hockey.
Posted by: Paul Rexford Thatcher, Sr. / August 17, 2008 / 10:30 PM