Originally Posted by
iahphx
What do you think the ultimate response of the Chinese to attending the Games will be? The Chinese I know (admittedly only a few, and by no means representative of the population) don't seem too interested -- including those who live in Beijing! That's typically been the reaction of professionals in other cities that have hosted the Games. They tend to be worried about the "enormous hassles" (which usually don't materialize), and flee town for the Games.
Are the Chinese different, or will we see the same pattern as before?
Don't kid yourself. Though as you've found, cheerleading for the Games is by no means universal among individual Chinese, there is plenty of general interest in attending the events, you just have to run into the right people to hear the other side. The venues for most things will be full. Beijing alone has 15 million people (not including the migrant workers and non-Chinese citizens)--even if only 20% had any interest, that's still 3 million people right there. And the local ticket prices are well-priced, even by Chinese urban middle class standards, so there are millions of people in Beijing and the wealthy east coast cities that can afford tickets to at least some sports. The common refrain I've heard among the local Chinese I know is that obtaining tickets themselves is the biggest hassle and next to impossible, but if they could get hold of some to an event of interest, they'd definitely attend. In the past 7 months, the "Good Luck Beijing" series of events has introduced a lot of Olympic sports to the local population that were not well known, (beach volleyball, fencing, etc.) as well as the popular things like swimming, diving, gymnastics, table tennis. The events I have been to were very well attended, and in some cases nearly sold out.
I don't personally know too many Beijing residents fleeing town for the Games, but I'm sure there will be some of that, but not enough to make a statistically meaningful improvement in your/our chance at getting more tickets.