Organizers Struggle To Explain Empty Seats At Rio 2016 Olympics

With the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in imminent danger of cementing a reputation as the most trouble-plagued Games in recent history, organizers are struggling to convince the world of their good intentions as problems increase by the day.

Indeed, even in the Olympics where empty seats have turned into the standard, seeing the stands at Tuesday’s women’s soccer semifinal amongst Canada and Germany was sufficient to leave you speechless. The king of Olympic sports, athletics, has been the latest casualty with the stadium consistently showing empty seats, thousands on Monday evening alone. At the giant Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, north of Rio, the whole upper deck was unfilled and soccer fans in the main level appeared to be far outnumbered by void seats. Comparable scenes have played out at venue after