The European Athletics Federation is very disappointed with the ticket sales for the European Championships. The Finnish decision-maker says that even patting did not work for the Italian organizers.
ROME
– We are really not satisfied with the situation. The figures are not at all what they should be.
of the Bulgarian President of the European Athletics Federation Dobromir Karamarinov a statement to Urheilu on Thursday in Rome says the essentials.
Ticket sales for the European Championships are failing completely, and the Stadio Olimpico, which has been shrunk from its spectator capacity to approximately 35,000 spectators, is not being filled on a single match day.
The chairman of the Italian Athletics Federation, who led the competition arrangements Stephen Mein the conclave has had to drop the ticket prices, which were already high at the beginning, by up to 40 percent.
“100,000 tickets sold”
– Around 100,000 tickets have been sold for the games, Mei estimated for Urheilu on Thursday.
At least on Friday, in the morning session, it seemed that either the estimate contains air or some of the ticket holders did not show up.
Italy belongs to the traditional European superpowers in athletics with, among other things, 145 EC medals, but the prestigious adult competitions in the country were held for the last time 37 years ago. You couldn’t talk about great audience success either at the 1987 World Championships, let alone the 1974 European Championships.
– The European Championships in an Olympic year are always difficult to sell. On a general level, in Italy it is much easier to sell one-day events than the rarely organized long value races. The corona pandemic hit Italy really hard, and the number of visitors to public events has not returned to the previous level, explained the former great runner Mei.
– The fact that it is an Olympic year is not a valid explanation for weak sales. The European Championships have been held in the Olympic year since 2012, and they are already an integral part of the European athletics calendar, chairman Karamarinov acknowledges.
The races are nowhere to be seen
Although one public event easily sinks in a metropolis like Rome with millions, everything has its limits. The EC athletics championships cannot be seen anywhere else in the city except in its core, i.e. around the Olympic stadium.
Sitting on the board of the European Athletics Federation Antti Pihlakoski says that the slow marketing of the Games was pointed out to the Italian organizers several times.
– When on one inspection visit we did some kind of speed gallup in the city, no one was even aware that such competitions were organized. When marketing goes wrong like this, poor audience success is the logical consequence, Pihlakoski points out.
Appealed to athletes
The Italian sports federation has even appealed to its athletes so that they would attract people to the place. Not all star athletes have wanted to participate in the effort.
– I don’t know the background in more detail, but for example Gianmarco Tamberi (the reigning Olympic champion and world champion in the high jump) did not want to participate in any way in the promotion of the Games for some reason.
Ticketing isn’t the only thing that’s gone wrong. The logistics experiences of the athletes are chilling, starting with transportation and the fact that, for example, water has not been delivered to them at the finish or interview area.