News Archive

Empty Seats For Sold-Out Events Remain Baffling(Sports Business Journal)

8/15/2008

Many non-premium, nosebleed-type seats are going empty. Thats not unusual at Games, except that BOCOG announced in July that tickets to all Olympic events in Beijing were completely sold out.

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A spot check of events suggests otherwise: The field hockey stadium when the U.S. played Germany was virtually empty; mens 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 Journals Beijing Bureau, BOCOG executive vice president and general secretary Wang Wei insisted that all tickets have been sold.

Tickets are out, and thats 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.

Its frustrating, Reid Priddy, one of the stars of the U.S. mens volleyball team, said of the smattering of fans at his teams 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 cant 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 Chinas tickets were effectively distributed, and added that its 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 its 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, its 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.