(ATR) Even with largely empty seats, Asian Games organizers express pride in spectator engagement.
Danny Buldansyah, spokesman for the INSAGOC organizing committee, tells Around the Rings 150,000 people visited the GBK Asian Games park over the weekend.
"Ticket sales are outrageous," he said adding "we’re not worried anymore."
Buldansyah said the organizers had hoped for one million fans to walk through the Jakarta 2018 ticketing gates and they are on course to surpass that number.
"We’re at 75 percent of our forecast".
Even with the weekend surge in attendance, fans can often be hard to find. Outside of the opening ceremony and badminton, traditionally Indonesia’s strongest sport, stands are largely empty. For the final of the men’s 100-meter race on August 26, typically a marquee event at multi-sport events, the 88,000-seat Gelora Bung Karno Stadium was perhaps 20 percent full with the most generous crowd estimates. Preliminary-round hockey matches have had no spectators.
Fans coming to the Games have created a new challenge: merchandise is largely sold out.
Mascots, in particular, have been hot sellers. A fresh shipment of merchandise was delivered on August 25 to stalls in GBK but it’s already gone. Buldansyah said INSAGOC has not received sales figures but will surpass their target of roughly $2.5 million in revenue from merchandise sales.
Bhin Bhin, the adorable bird of paradise, is the most popular of the three mascots. Bhin Bhin can be found playing bridge, paragliding, and most incongruous, weightlifting.
Each one with a smile.
Coverage of the 18th Asian Games is made possible in part by the Olympic Council of Asia
Written by Edward Hula IIIin Jakarta
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