doodledee

Am I the only one who keeps gawking at all the empty seats at the Olympic venues in Greece? And not just at the lamer events, either, the 'good ones' are empty, too. Tonight NBC featured one of those monster huge swimming races and the blimp shot showed the stands were maybe 2/3 full. And it's been way, way worse than that at other events. On Saturday I saw some dudes in leotards walking around in an empty gymnasium looking confused. One of them got up on some rings and did some flips and stuff, but nobody clapped because a) nobody was there and b) gymnastics is dumb.

It looks bad on TV. Really bad. So bad that Bob Costas took the time to try and explain the empty seats to the home audience, presumably to reassure us that just because nobody was actually *at* the events, we should still stand-by for the next Budweiser commercial.

"Europeans don't like the same sports we Americans do," he said. "Plus, the games just started and the medal round stuff has been selling much better, so expect big crowds later on." Then he added the obligatory "And also of note is that August is traditionally the holiday month for Europeans."

Unfortunately he didn't go on to explain how, yes, most of Europe takes THE WHOLE EFFING MONTH OF AUGUST OFF.

Screw the empty seats, that's the real thinker.

So Far, Olympics Are a Box-Office Bust [strib]
Europe Ponders the Meaning of Life [nyt]