2016 Summer Olympics: Slow Sale Of Ticket Worries Brazil

Rio de Janeiro: The meager sale of Olympic tickets clubbed with the public apathy just five months before the 2016 Summer Olympics has alarmed the Brazilian government.

Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman, Phil Wilkinson said that only 50 percent of tickets to the Olympics have sold so far. For the Paralympics, which follows the main Games, the figure is far worse — standing at just12 percent.

Brazil’s Sports Minister, Ricardo Leyser said that the government could purchase tickets and then distribute them to schools in an effort to fill the stadiums. Public officials, he added, also need to boost confidence worldwide in the country’s ability to host the games. “There is a perception that the Brazilian population has not yet woken up for the Games,” he said.  “We are going to work energetically on this because it’s still not in people’s heads. We need to sound an alert so that people remember this event and go and buy tickets,” he further added.

The Olympics were awarded to Rio de Janeiro in 2009 when Brazil was politically stable and enjoying a prolonged spurt of economic growth. But with the final 100 days mark fast approaching, organizers find themselves tackling serious problems on almost every front imaginable.

One of primary reasons behind the lagging of tickets sales is being held as the national outbreak of Zika, a mosquito-transmitted virus that is believed to cause serious birth defects in pregnant women. In February, concerns about the virus led Hope Solo, the U.S. soccer team’s star goalkeeper, to say that she was not certain whether she’d participate in the Games.

Fear of terrorist attack is also held as another reason. Leyser called security planning “critical” in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Parts of Rio, including the Mare slum that is near the airport and stadium in which the opening ceremony will be held, are subject to frequent shootouts between drug gangs and police. So far, a force of 85,000 is expected to police the Games, twice as large as the force employed for the London Games.

President Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment, meaning the country does not even know who will be its leader by the time the Games start.

And a bruising recession has forced deep cuts to the Olympic budget, with everything from security to the opening ceremony and even facilities for athletes in the Olympic Village having to make do with less.