Mystery of the Missing Olympic Tickets

The familiar site of a huge sporting event with empty seats has struck again in Beijing it seems. Many of the lower profile events – despite being completely sold out! – have failed to draw a full crowd.
Empty Seats In Beijing Cause Concern For Organisers And Dismay For Fans
This is really upsetting for fans, particularly those who have not been able to purchase tickets legitimately, but would love to be in these empty seats. Bob is speaking from experience.

The Beijing organisers have said that they will be hiring "cheerleaders" who cheer for both teams to bolster the atmosphere. What a shame. Good job if you can get it though!

Of course this is not the first (or certainly the last) time that this has happened. Bob was is Japan in 2002 for the Football World Cup, where FIFA made a right royal mess out of the ticketing situation, leaving thousands of travelling fans outside half-empty stadia. (What made it worse in Japan was that not all of the matches were even televised locally, as the competition was so low-key!) And Bob has distinct memories of Raphael Nadal and Novak Djokovic walking onto court at Roland Garros to wage war in a semi-final in front of a fashionably later French crowd.

However BOCOG are not FIFA (thank Buddah!) and the enthusiastic Chinese crowds are far from the moody Parisians. One would be forgiven for expecting a full house for every single event, with the level of excitement that the organisers have whipped up in China.

Some people are blaming corporate ticket allocations – fair enough, it is usually these seats that are empty in Football matches, or at Wimbledon. But speaking as someone who knows a number of people in some of the top Olympic sponsors (sorry, can't name names) this doesn't appear to be the case. Even they are finding it hard to get hold of the tickets.

So, it is a mystery. But until it is solved, Bob is off to volunteer as a cheerleader… now where to go, the Bird's Nest, the velodrome…?

OLYMPICS 2008 BEIJING(CHINA)

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, is being celebrated in Beijing, People's Republic of China, from August 8 (with football starting on August 6) to August 24, 2008, and followed by the 2008 Summer Paralympics from September 6 to September 17. 10,500 athletes are expected to compete in 302 events in 28 sports, one event more than was on the schedule of the 2004 games. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will also mark the third time that Olympic events will have been held in the territories of two different National Olympic Committees (NOC), with the equestrian events to be held in Hong Kong.The Olympic games were awarded to Beijing after an exhaustive ballot of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 13, 2001. The official logo of the games, titled "Dancing Beijing," features a stylised calligraphic character jīng (京, meaning capital), referring to the host city. The mascots of Beijing 2008 are the five Fuwa, each representing both a colour of the Olympic rings and a symbol of Chinese culture. The Olympic slogan, One World, One Dream, calls upon the world to unite in the Olympic spirit. Several new NOCs have also been recognised by the IOCThe Games carry a $43 billion price tag, dwarfing the $15 billion splashed out by Athens in 2004, and run until Aug. 24, with 10,500 athletes from a record 204 nations chasing 302 gold medals in 28 sports.Chinese President Hu Jintao declared the Games open.Befittingly for the world's most populous nation, Friday's show unleashed wave upon wave of humanity into the arena, revelling in past glories, like the invention of gunpowder, but also more modern triumphs, like putting astronauts into space.The careful choreography of the ceremony extended well beyond the stadium and 100,000 police fanned out to prevent attacks and protests, while dissidents have been kept out of sight.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued an appeal at the ceremony calling on warring nations to honor a traditional truce during the Games, but his message went unheeded with fierce fighting in Georgia during the day involving Russian forces.Further denting the Olympic ideal of harmony, the two Korea's failed to agree to march at the opening as a unified team even though they managed that in 2004 and 2000.The 91,000-strong crowd saved its largest roar of the evening for the entry of the Chinese team, which is confidently expected to top the medals table for the first time and was headed onto the field by basketball player Yao Ming.Yao was accompanied by a young boy who survived an earthquake in the southwest of the country in May which killed some 70,000."For a long time, China has dreamed of opening its doors and inviting the world's athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games," Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said. "Tonight that dream comes true. Congratulations, Beijing!"

OPENING CEREMONIES PHOTOS:

un Jinfang (L), former volleyball athlete, passes the flame to Li Ning, former Olympic gymnast during the Opening Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics at the National Stadium on August 8, 2008 in Beijing, China.


Chinese former gymnastics champion Li Ning kindles the cauldron.

OLYMPICS FOREVER

The Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event. The original Olympic Games (Greek: Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες; [Olympiakoi Agones] (help•info)) were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and were celebrated until AD 393. Interest in reviving the Olympic Games proper was first shown by the Greek poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead" in 1833. Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic Games in 1859. He paid for the refurbishment of the Panathenian Stadium for Olympic Games held there in 1870 and 1875. This was noted in newspapers and publications around the world including the London Review, which stated that "the Olympian Games, discontinued for centuries, have recently been revived! Here is strange news indeed ... the classical games of antiquity were revived near Athens."
The International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894 on the initiative of a French nobleman, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin. The IOC has become the heart of the "Olympic Movement," a conglomeration of sporting federations that are involved in the organization of the Games. As the Olympic Movement has grown so have the profile and complexity of the Games. Participation in the Games has increased to the point that nearly every nation on earth is represented. With the proliferation of satellite communications, the internet, and the continuing trend towards globalization, the Olympics are consistently gaining supporters.

List of Olympic host cities Summer Season