> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26172248/
>
> Fan frustration grows over ticket issues
> Half-empty venues and sky-high prices are souring Olympic faithful
>
> BEIJING - Duleep Deosthale of New York was standing in the Olympic
> Green, a little deflated after the United States' second-place finish
> to China in team gymnastics Wednesday. The gymnastics fan, who was
> wearing a red, white and blue top hat and a U.S. flag as a cape, had
> witnessed the monumental clash between the Americans and Chinese, a
> matchup some said was the premier event of the Olympics.
>
> He was stung, just like the women's team, which lost an early lead and
> stumbled to a silver medal. But what added to the sting was what he
> had to pay for his seat in the National Indoor Stadium.
>
> "We do not talk about that sore spot," he said when asked how he
> scored the ticket.
>
> But Deosthale, who has attended the past three Olympics, eventually
> opened up and released a torrent of frustration over the ticket
> system, the scalpers who were working the sidewalks outside the fenced
> venues and the empty seats that seemed to taunt would-be spectators
> and fans who had paid a premium to attend the Games.
>
> "I paid $475," Deosthale finally admitted.
>
> "Prices are unbelievable," he said. He had wanted to attend the
> swimming events earlier in the morning, but scalpers were asking for
> more than $1,000 a ticket, he said.
>
> Frustration seems to be growing among foreign fans and the Chinese
> public as tickets remain scarce — and the ones available are selling
> at a premium — and venues remain empty, despite pronouncements that
> that Games were "sold out." Officials have now acknowledged they have
> had trouble filling venues.
>
> Deoshale was doubly frustrated when he saw there were empty seats in
> the National Indoor Stadium.
>
> "You're like, wait a minute. What's going on?" he said.
>
> Fans who want to go to events are being forced to buy them from
> scalpers. Many tickets, many with face values of 30 to 50 RMB, were
> being sold for 500 RMB or more. Tickets for highly-sought events, like
> swimming, gymnastics and athletics, were in the thousands.
>
> "(Officials) aren't thinking about us (the fans)," Deoshale said.
> "[The system is] putting the money in the hands of the scalpers."
>
> "Business is good," said Benny Daniel, a professional ticket broker
> who had traveled from Houston to Beijing. "They (officials) are
> letting us work."
>
> For a Santa Ana, Calif., gymnastics school that traveled to Beijing to
> cheer on Shawn Johnson and the U.S. squad, it was one aggravation
> after another. They were burned by beijingticketing.com, a bogus Web
> site that was shut down last week. After that, it was a mad scramble
> for tickets.
>
> "We were three days out of our departure and we had no tickets," said
> Lorrene Lee, a volunteer mother.
>
> Luckily for Lee and the school, two travel agencies in Pasadena and in
> Canda were able to secure tickets for the 51-person party.
>
> "The logistics have been terrible," said Lee. The group was also
> blaming the lack of communication between officials and spectators.
>
> And rumors were flying around the Green. The group was told there were
> tickets being sold at face value at hotels, but they didn't know which
> hotels. There were tickets at local branches of Bank of China, but
> only a few of them had them. No one knew which branches were selling
> the tickets. The public could get tickets to enter the Olympic Green,
> but none of the volunteers who were asked Wednesday knew about special
> Olympic Green tickets. The answer was still: You had to have a ticket
> to the day's events to enter.
>
> It all meant that many fans were left confused — and without tickets.
>
> "The people who lose out are committed spectators who come to watch
> the Games," Deoshale said. "It's just not right."
>
> He also blamed the corporate ties of the Olympics as one of the
> reasons stadiums are empty. He and many others speculate that too many
> VIPs and sponsors were not using their allotment of tickets.
>
> "It's frustrating," he groused.
>
> The frustration wasn't only limited to visitors. Many Chinese are
> having trouble purchasing tickets. Wu Yue, a journalism major at a
> university near Shanghai, said she was lucky to get tickets for
> Wednesday afternoon's tennis matches. She had won a lottery to
> purchase tickets earlier in the year. Her friends were not as lucky.
>
> "They don't know what to do," she said. "They're surfing the Internet
> and they're telling me that the prices are terrible."
>
> As venues sit almost half-empty, officials will be dealing with a
> growing tempest. They've tried to fill stadiums by bringing in
> schoolchildren, students and volunteers to serve as cheerleaders and
> seat fillers. But for regular fans, they're outside looking in.
>
> Or paying $475 for a seat.
>
> "That's why it hurts a little for the silver medal," Deosthale said.
> "For $475 we should have gotten the gold medal."