Even though tickets to all of the events were sold out at the Beijing Olympics, anyone watching the games will have noticed that there always looks to be plenty of seats available.

“Everyone I know wanted tickets; we Chinese love to see sports,” said Mike Ma, 34, a Beijing office worker who scored a field hockey ticket through a German friend because he was unable to buy one in China. “It’s a pity there are so many empty seats. We would like to know who is responsible.”

Chinese organizers have blamed the bad weather, but if people line up for hours and sometimes overnight to get tickets, you wouldn’t think a bit of rain or heat would stop people from coming.

“This is our fourth Olympics, but getting tickets to this one really has been a nightmare,” said Stacey Watson, a 44-year-old Australian, as she watched her country beat Pakistan, 3-1 in the hockey. “Then you get inside and you wonder who got all the tickets, because there is nobody there.”

Some events have been packed however, including China’s basketball games, the gymnastics and the track and field last night at the birds nest stadium. Many of the sponsor and VIP seats remain empty. I don’t think it will be just a problem with the Beijing Olympics. Something needs to be done by the IOC, like creating standby tickets, where people can enter a venue 5 minutes before a match starts and fill the empty seats.