Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Surfing Through The Olympics

I love how everyone refers to ice skater Johnny Weir as "flamboyant." His profile on NBC last year was great fun and a great setup for his very good short program, though no one can get within a mile of Plushenko unless he stumbles bad. I was just about to state the obvious when the NYT beat me to it: the crowds at Turin are pathetic. Even the ice skating -- a premiere event -- looked half empty. NBC cameras may try to avoid showing empty seats but the NYT details the poor ticket sales. One scalper states the obvious: the ticket prices are too high, keeping the presumably egalitarian Olympics out of reach from everyone but the super-wealthy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I noticed the empty stands too. Sad. When I saw what they were charging for Salt Lake, I'm not surprised. The Olympics should be jammed with crowds buying cheap tickets -- don't they make enough on tv rights and the burden of the host country to keep tix reasonable?

Anonymous said...

At least it matches the viewers at home.

Anonymous said...

Flamboyant is the new black.

Anonymous said...

I thought flamboyant was the new gay.