World Soccer News: Tickets Not Selling for Olympic Soccer Games? Or Too Many Available?

With the countdown to the Opening Ceremony going on, Reuters reported today that half a million tickets for the Olympic soccer matches have been withdrawn and stadium capacities reduced due to a lack of ticket sales, according to those organizing the Olympic games.

Empty soccer stadiums at the Olympics which are scheduled for 27 July - 12 August? Only 9 days left to the beginning of the 2012 Olympics and hundreds of thousands of tickets are available.

With hundreds of thousands of tickets still available for the soccer matches at the 2012 Olympics, one would wonder if soccer is really a global sport - or if the Olympic committee organizers are just really bad at the job of selling tickets to soccer matches when one hears today’s news of the withdrawal of half a million tickets.

Then one reads the statements issued that games chief Seb Coe told reporters that soccer ticket sales were consistent with previous Olympics.

"We've sold more football tickets than we've sold anything else, we've got 37-38,000 tickets we've sold for Britain ladies v New Zealand which I think benchmarks pretty well for instance with the women's FA Cup final this year which was an all-London affair at the Emirates (Stadium) and they had about 5,000.

"We are not in bad shape on tickets but football tickets at a Games are always the challenge. I think we'll do pretty well."

Somehow I have a hard time reconciling this information with the recent rise in MLS attendance, the high Nielsen ratings for Fox Soccer and America’s growing love of the beautiful game.

If soccer stadiums will have tiers and whole sections closed off to reduce capacity and the threat of echoes of empty seats still persists, how can this be good? 

England is a country that defines itself by soccer. While London may be the chic, cultural oasis of the elite and not always aware of its sweaty soccer jersey-clad men, England is renowned for its passion for the sport.  

The soccer competition takes place across Britain in six different venues. Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow are all soccer centers and London's Wembley Stadium is a glamorous location which will host both the men's and women's finals.