Olympic No-Shows Cause Concern

One week after the start of the Beijing Olympics, spectators are seeing something no one expected: empty seats.
According to the Washington Post when U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps took the gold in the 200 meter freestyle, there were more than 500 empty seats in the arena. The BBC reported that less popular events like judo and badminton had even smaller turnouts.

It comes after Chinese authorities announced that tickets to all events had been sold out. But according to the Washington Post, many of those tickets were given away to corporate sponsors and Chinese state-run businesses.

The low turnout has hurt local Beijing businesses, which were counting on a boost from foreign tourism.

And now, faced with large numbers of no-shows, organizers have resorted to having the Olympic volunteers fill seats and form cheering squads.

Increased security measures and visa restrictions may be partly to blame for the low turnout. But it』s another blow to the Chinese regime, which is already suffering from negative publicity over media restrictions and human rights abuses. ( http://english.ntdtv.com/?c=145＆a=4482 )
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• Beijing
• Olympics
• China
• empty.seat
• No-Shows
• fake
• negative.publicity