Rio Tickets, Venues Affected by Economic Crisis

(ATR) Despite continued positivity from organizers, the effects of the current economic climate in Brazil are beginning to show.

Rio organizers say that ticket sales, especially for the 2016 Paralympics, have not sold at a rate that was expected due to the current economic outlook for the country. Brazil has seen negative growth in gross domestic product for the past three quarters, with a continued negative outlook for the country.

"We are a bit worried with the Paralympics," Mario Andrada, head of communications for Rio 2016, said to reporters on Jan. 19.

"We have to educate, publicize. In the Paralympics we still need to show that Brazil will be fighting for the top five on the medal chart."

Andrada said that only 300,000 Paralympic tickets have been sold so far. Rio 2016 expected to sell 3.2 million Paralympic tickets, a record, for the 2016 Games.

The International Paralympic Committee says it is aware of the lagging sales and will help Rio 2016 during the final sales push.

"Clearly we'd like to have sold more tickets at this stage," Craig Spence, IPC director of media communications, said in a statement provided to Around the Rings.

"Brazil is a very late purchase market and one big misconception we are suffering from locally at the moment is that tickets are perceived as too expensive. Over the coming months we will be working extremely hard to correct this and hammer home that tickets are actually extremely great value for money."

In addition to slow Paralympic sales, only half of the 4.5 million domestic Olympic tickets have been sold. Andrada described the sales as "a little lower than usual," a stark contrast to the confidence Rio 2016 officials described last week.

On Jan. 12 Carlos Nuzman told ATR that he expected Brazilians to buy the remaining tickets at the last minute like ahead of the 2007 Pan American Games. He ruled out all possibilities of changing ticket prices to encourage Brazilians to buy tickets in the current economic climate.

"We have the same prices to respect everyone around the world, and I think the prices are very cheap; I am very confident," Nuzman added.

In another effort to balance the Rio 2016 operations budget, rowing and canoeing will see their venue capacities reduced to save money.

Andrada confirmed the floating grandstand set to be built on the Lagoa de Freitas will no longer be constructed for the Games. The grandstand was expected to host 4,000 seats.

Rio officials are working to shave off nearly $500 million in cost overruns to keep the operations budget under the original $1.8 billion figure.

Simon Toulson, Secretary General of the International Canoe Federation, told ATR they will be meeting with Rio 2016 on Jan. 21 to discuss the full impact budget cuts will have ahead of the Games, but were expecting the grandstand to be scrapped.

"We will help Rio 2016 to save money as far as possible as long as it does not impact athlete welfare, competition and their experience," Toulson added.

All Olympic sport federations will meet with Rio 2016 in early February in Lausanne to discuss the full impact the cuts will have.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.