Asian Games organisers respond to sparse athletics crowds and unsold tickets

Asian Games organisers acknowledged dissatisfaction with ticket sales on Saturday after athletics events in Nagoya drew conspicuously small crowds. AFP reported that the 30,000-seat Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium appeared roughly a quarter full for Friday night's 100m races, despite the prominence of the sprint events on the competition programme.

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Organising committee secretary-general Satoshi Murate told AFP that officials would continue selling tickets and encourage existing ticket holders to attend. He also pointed to sessions containing multiple matches, where spectators concentrate on the main attraction, and allocations to sponsors and other stakeholders that have not always been used.

The sales picture varies considerably between sports. A Bernama-Kyodo report published by Malay Mail said organisers had disclosed sales below 60 percent for eight sports, including baseball, football and hockey, as well as the closing ceremony. Those figures were released on Friday and reflected sales as of the previous day, rather than a final count for the Games.

Other competitions have attracted much stronger demand. More than 90 percent of available tickets had been sold across 13 sports, with badminton and fencing among them, according to the same report. Seven further sports, including basketball, artistic gymnastics and volleyball, had passed 80 percent. The published figures therefore show substantial differences between events, rather than uniformly low sales throughout the programme.

There is an important limit to interpreting those percentages: organisers had not disclosed the number of seats being offered at each venue. Bernama-Kyodo also reported empty seats at events listed as sold out for general admission, with unused invitational and company tickets believed to be the main explanation. Tickets distributed or sold should therefore not be treated as a count of spectators present.

Murate said opening-ceremony ticket sales had exceeded 90 percent, but attributed visible gaps in the stands to people not attending. His response set out two tasks for organisers: increasing sales where seats remain available and getting allocated seats occupied. He said the committee would continue aiming to fill venues as competition proceeds.