Olympic organizers claim that they have sold more than 90% of available seats to the events, but that transportation problems and cold weather have kept ticket holders from attending.
Pyeongchang officials have reportedly turned to volunteers to help fill space.
The alpine ski events have seen particularly low attendance. In both the speed and technical events crowds have been in the low hundreds. This compared to a World Cup ski event in Austria, Switzerland, France or Italy, where the crowds can reach up to 40,000.
This is nothing new. Both the 2014 Sochi Games and the 2006 Turin Games had venues that were near empty.
The truth is that with NBC paying $7.65 billion to extend its broadcast rights through 2032 and huge corporate sponsorships the IOC doesn’t really need ticket revenue.
That being said, it would be nice to see more people turning out to support their countries and athletes.
