Rio Olympics 2016: Empty seats AGAIN blight Games as not even the athletics can draw fans
NOT even the showpiece events of the Olympics can draw the crowds it seems - as the athletics got under way with THOUSANDS of empty seats.
Jess Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson got going in the heptathlon but some of the finest athletes on the planet failed to coax the Rio public out to watch the blue-ribbon entertainment.
And it is just the latest embarrassment to hit Rio after the diving pool turned GREEN - leaving GB star Tom Daley fearing he's been diving into "something bad".
The Games has been blighted by the woefully low turn-out of fans inside the arenas - despite stars like Usain Bolt pleading for people to head out in their droves.
But the appeals seem to have had little impact, as the Olympic Stadium became yet another venue to be way down on its capacity - in stark contrast to the packed houses for London 2012.
As the athletics got under way in pouring rain on Friday morning there were vast swathes of empty seats for the first morning of track action, with barely a couple of thousand inside the 60,000-seater venue when the session started.
More drifted in but the attendance remained feebly low.
Veteran Brit Jo Pavey finished 15th as Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana stormed to gold in a brilliant world-record time - against a blue backdrop of empty seats.
The turnout for the evening sessions, and in particular the sprint superstar’s 100m final on Sunday night, will prove how successful he has been.
On Monday morning, organisers claimed 84% of of the 7.5 million available tickets had been sold.
But that now appears a remarkable statement with not even the athletics seemingly able to bring in the punters.
The Olympic committee’s excuse has been that South Americans are very late buyers – but maybe they just haven’t been convinced by the thrills of the Games.
Tickets are expensive and the organisers have found it difficult to convince Brazilians that the Games they’ve paid for have been worth the money.
The threat of anti-government protests, crime, and the Zika virus will not have helped either.