Why So Many Empty Seats in Beijing?

It's been impossible not to notice, while watching the Olympics on television, that there are a whole lot of empty seats at the event venues in Beijing, even for some of the marquee sports, like gymnastics and basketball.

The New York Times explores:

"It is a challenge for us," Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, said of the empty seats on Sunday. "We are now in the process of trying to manage that." ...

"I've been hearing people complaining about that," said a 23-year-old volunteer working outside the Water Cube who identified herself as Ms. Chen. "As tickets are really hard to get, the fact that some of the best seats remained untaken through the whole game really upset people who really want to see the game but don't have the ticket."

The main reason seems to be that the Beijing organizing committee gave huge blocks of tickets to sponsors, meaning the fans who would like to attend are told that the events are sold out. But through the first five days of the Olympics, for the most part the sponsors are choosing not to use the seats.

I guess the lesson here is that whether the country is communist or capitalist, the real fans will come in second to the corporate fat cats. No surprise there.