Chinese Olympic organizers acknowledged Tuesday they were struggling to handle an unforeseen and baffling problem inside Summer Games venues and at the showpiece Olympic Park. Not enough people.

This couldn’t have come as a surprise to the Chinese organizers. It is (or should be) common knowledge that Beijing residents are notorious for their non-attendance at sports events. If the organizers didn’t know instinctively they should have figured it out from all the evidence. All they had to do was survey the last year’s worth of CCTV5 or BJTV Sports programming to peep that unless the event was Ping Pong or Diving, most of the time seats at athletic events are empty. the bottom line is that sports culture in China, while growing is nowhere near what it is the US or Europe. So why would it change for the Olympics, especially for sports that most Chinese don’t have a clue about or have a care for (read: beach volleyball, field hockey, rowing). I asked several Chinese about this and almost all begged the question: why suffer in the heat and crowds when I can watch it from the comfort of my home, the office or bar with my family and homies? Why pay when I can get a better and cheaper experience (read: no security checks) elsewhere? But what about the expats, “foreigners”, and laowais? My guess on that is, as suggested in the article, most expats who initially were thinking about being in Beijing (such as myself) decided long ago (read: after hearing about all the security hoops, clamp-downs on fun and sundry hassles) either not to attend or were prevented from being in Beijing (read: visa restrictions). The result being that most non-Chinese in Beijing are new arrivals, national team members (and their families) and/or Olympic officialdom (and their families). All of whom are probably a bit shy about stepping out and about in a city they don’t know, in a language they don’t speak amid worries for their security. Nothing like the coming together of a great marketing plan. Personally, after considering going, the potential hassles outweighed to potential fun. My plan is to wait until after the Olympics then roll in B-town. The pressure should be off (like the ending of Prohibition) and the fun-times (not to mention discounted prices) should be rising to a higher level.

Beijing Is All Dressed Up, But No One Is Going.