S. Korean officials: Stadiums aren’t as empty as they look
They say more than 92% of public tickets to Games have been sold
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Winter Olympic organizers have a message for those of you watching the Games at home: Don’t believe your lying eyes.
If you’ve been watching the Pyeongchang Games on television, you’ve probably noticed plenty of empty seats.
But the Games’ organizers said Saturday that more than 92% of 1.06 million tickets available to the public have been sold. Friday’s Games marked the best single day yet for the Games with nearly 108,000 tickets sold, said Sung Baik You, spokesman for the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee ( POCOG).
“It’s much better than expected,” Sung told reporters. “In particular yesterday, because of the Lunar New Year holiday, many families visited the venues. And today we believe there will be lots of spectators.”
At the start of Saturday morning’s men’s figure skating competition, huge patches of the Gangneung Ice Arena were empty. But organizers
said tickets for the event were entirely sold out.
Sung said the 10 a. m. start time, as well as spectators who bought their tickets as part of group packages and then showed up late, contributed to cameras finding empty seats.
In addition, organizers have said they allot a significant section of the stadium to athletes to watch an event and to news media covering the Games.
“There is a very popular Japanese figure skater ( Yuzuru) Hanyu, and there are very many other popular figure skaters,” Sung said of the skater who earned a gold medal in the men’s individual figure skating com- petition Saturday. “I know there are many Japanese fans. They may just be coming in a bit late.”
Still, partially filled stadiums and outdoor venues have been the norm for the Games.
For Saturday’s events, organizers said 90,000 of 92,000 available tickets had already been sold. Olympic organizers said they’ve also seen an uptick of visitors to cultural events at the Olympic Plaza and for the nightly medal ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.
During the first few days of the Games, organizers were counting about 10,000 visitors to the plaza and stadium. On Friday, there were about 30,000 visitors.
Sung also noted that there have been many news reports in the Korean media of ticket scalping, which he said further underscores the popularity of the Pyeongchang Games.
“Even when we look back at the 1988 Seoul Games and the 2002 World Cup, up until the events started we saw relatively little public excitement,” Sung said. “But once the Games begin, the Korean people erupt in joy and celebration.”
In other developments, South Korean authorities were working to determine the cause of death of a Korean man who was found dead Saturday in his room at the Olympic media village.
The man, who was in his 50s and working as an assistant to a Japanese news organization, was found unresponsive by a colleague, according to POCOG. The man’s name was not released, but he works for the Japanese Broadcasters Coalition.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams also confirmed that the 1,000th gold medal in the history of the Winter Olympics was expected to be awarded Saturday.