Athens still has two-thirds of Games tickets
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-02 10:20

With two months to go before the Athens Olympics, Games organizers said Tuesday only one-third of an available 5.3 million tickets had been sold.

A woman shows the front side of some of the Olympic games tickets in Athens on Tuesday, June 1, 2004. The two tickets on the right are for the Opening and Closing ceremony while the other tickets are for some of the sport events during the Aug. 13-29 Games. [AP]

The lower-than-expected figure, on top of statistics showing the expected tourism boom had not materialized, added fuel to questioning by two senior cabinet ministers over the wisdom of bringing the Games back to their ancient and modern birth.

After two rounds of ticket sales that ended in April, organizers have so far sold about 1.8 million tickets out of a total of 5.3 million for the August 13-29 Games.

In contrast, figures for Sydney, site of the 2000 Summer Olympics, show more than half of its tickets had been sold at the same stage even though far more had been offered.

According to IOC figures, organizers sold 6.6 million out of a total 7.6 million tickets.

More than half -- around 4.0 million -- had already been snapped up three months before the start of the world's biggest sporting event.

The poor ticket sales for Athens provide further proof of how security worries since the September 11, 2001 attacks, reports of poor preparations and the failure of key teams to qualify in high-profile events have hurt the Games.

The United States, the world's top baseball nation, and Brazil, the world's top football nation, will both be absent from their competitions.

Baseball, little known in Greece, was out of favor with only about 19 percent of all its tickets sold.

Reports of a crackdown on doping that could keep top athletes away have also hovered over the August Games.

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