Games raking in money, but where are all the fans?

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — It was the kind of roar that has been in short supply at these 2018 Winter Olympics.

Twelve thousand fans — many of them Korean — packed into Gangneung Ice Arena, cheering as their countrywoman, Choi Min-jeong, won her heat in short-track speedskating.

“We expect a gold medal tonight,” said Jaewoo Shim who showed up at the arena on a weekend night. “People in Korea are very interested in watching this game.”

With large, boisterous crowds, short track has been an exception at a Games that has often seen row after row of empty seats, even at some of the marquee events.

“I think it’s a little bit strange, to be honest, that we’re having the Olympics and there’s that few people in the stands,” Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway said after winning the men’s downhill. “And it’s a bit sad.”

Organizers say they have sold more than 90 percent of available seats; they have blamed transportation snafus and frigid weather, among other things, for scaring away some ticket-holders, with a spokeswoman saying: “We can’t control the people who don’t show up.”

But as Pyeongchang struggles with lackluster attendance — at times using volunteers to fill space — sports business experts ask an important question:

For an Olympic movement that generates billions of dollars from television and corporate sponsorships, does attendance really matter?

“It would be nice to have all these cowbells clanging as skiers go down the hill,” said Scott Minto, director of the sports business management program at San Diego State. “But from a business sense, these Games could be on the moon and people would still tune in.”

This issue isn’t new to host cities. Ticket sales lagged in the run-up to the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. There were partially empty venues at the 2014 Sochi Games and at Turin, Italy, in 2006.

Six weeks before the opening ceremony in South Korea, organizers acknowledged that nearly 40 per cent of their one million tickets had yet to be purchased.

Pyeongchang was a tough sell if only because the county is about 140 kilometres east of Seoul. When the Games began, this distance was exacerbated by traffic jams and “incidents with the bus operation,” organizers said.

It didn’t help that some events were scheduled early in the day to accommodate American television.

That meant spectators coming from outside the region had to leave home hours in advance.

“The folks who fork over the most money to the IOC are going to be the ones who dictate the times,” Minto said of broadcasters. “It’s not always going to be in the best interest of the locals.”