Attendance Lacking At Some Turin Olympics Events

(From Sports Business Daily)

The "sparse attendance" at events at THE TURIN OLYMPICS is "startlingly reminiscent of the embarrassment" of THE 2004 ATHENS GAMES, according to LYNN ZINSER of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

For "every sold-out event like men's snowboarding, there is a half-full luge site."

Men's figure skating last night had "huge gaps of empty seats, and ushers urged people to move down and fill out the lower sections, just as they had done in Athens at the women's gymnastics."

U.S. speedskater JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ, on yesterday's speedskating attendance -- "I'm very disappointed. I came out and it was like half-empty, or half-full, depending on how you look at it. But I feel like the Olympics should be sold out."

However, TOROC Spokesperson GIUSEPPE GATTINO said, "Everything is going fine. Last week we had sold 700,000 tickets, and now we have a total of 789,000, so it is going very well."

IOC Director of Communications GISELLE DAVIES said
the IOC has "no concern."

True, some events are not full to capacity, but it does happen that some early rounds of competition do not draw the crowds as well as the medal events."

Zinser writes, "As jarring as the sparse numbers, however, has been the lack of atmosphere."