China may be a land of crowds, but not at its Olympic Green.Some major Olympic sponsors that invested millions of dollars to pitch their brands from elaborately constructed pavilions are fuming because access to the Green -- usually the main focal and gathering point of most Games -- has been strictly limited.
Citing security concerns, Beijing Olympics officials have turned away droves of spectators who are curious to see the Green with day passes. For the most part, the only people who have been allowed inside are those with hard-to-get tickets to the venues along the Green.
Sponsors like Lenovo, Samsung, Adidas and Coca-Cola, have set up elaborate corporate "experiences," complete with neon lights, giant-screen TVs and music acts.
But the crowds were sparse, even at 8 p.m. Tuesday, when the Games were in full swing. A small line of people stood outside the Coke exhibit, where dry ice and the sound of gurgling soda pop drifted out. Meanwhile, a giant restaurant erected by McDonald's at the end of the Green has been far from packed.
The Olympic Green is a massive space that is surrounded by Olympic venues including the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, and is the site of swimming, gymnastics, archery and many other sports. As the organizers intended, it is big -- six times the size of the Green in Athens and three times the size of New York's Central Park.
Several high-profile sponsors were expecting 200,000 visitors a day and instead have seen just 20% of that, making it very difficult to justify costs that surpass $150 million, according to people close to the situation.
"It's too bad there aren't more people, it's a nice atmosphere," said Eugene Reimer, a Canadian who was swaying to a Beijing rock band playing at the Samsung pavilion. Sipping beer, he said, "I thought this would be more of a party."
At 32,528 square feet and 1,015 seats, the temporary McDonald's at the north end of the Olympic Green is the largest free-standing McDonald's in the world as measured by size and seating capacity. Last week, the company said it was expecting huge traffic because it is the only restaurant on the Olympic Green.
Johan Jervoe, McDonald's corporate vice president of global marketing, said Tuesday that "We are pleased with our restaurants here and our brand's positioning amidst the wide expanse of the Games and its spectators."
McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa Howard said the company hasn't asked Olympic officials to get more spectators to the Olympic Green. She declined to answer specific questions about the lack of spectators in that area.
Some sponsors like Samsung, which have outdoor events at night, say they have been satisfied with the crowds. And most expect that the crowds will pick up when track and field events begin Friday at the nearby National Stadium.
"Obviously, it would have been nice to see more numbers earlier," said Katja Schreiber, a spokeswoman for Adidas, a major Olympic sponsor with a pavilion on the Green. "But we are seeing a growing trend, which will continue once the track and field competition [begins] in the 91,000-seat Bird's Nest later this week."
Even so, frustrated sponsors have been pushing Olympics officials to remedy the situation, warning that it could result in sponsors being reluctant to pony up money again for the London Games.
Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee, acknowledged the problem. "We are aware of this issue. We are already planning to invite more people to the Olympic Green. ... We definitely want more people and spectators." One problem is even basic information for spectators such as how to get a day pass to the Green or the course of the cycling road races have been difficult to come by.
In past Olympics like Athens and Sydney, the Olympics Green was a gathering place for thousands of people, filled with restaurants and live music. In Beijing, thousands of people stand behind fences outside the venues and the Green with no way to get inside. Legions of people who swap pins, a popular Olympics tradition that is usually a fixture on the Olympics Green, are camped outside the Media Center next to waiting taxi cabs in the summer heat.
Part of the problem is the size of Beijing's Olympic Green, which some sponsors say is simply too big to get around easily. And Beijing itself is also a giant city, with Olympics parties and events spread across such a large area that there is no one place where people are congregating.
Joanne Wheater, a Beijing resident who attended the Sydney Olympics, said Sydney's Olympic Green was much more compact. Pulling out a map of Beijing, she said, "The Forbidden City takes two hours to walk around, and that's just a little bit compared to here," she said, her finger stabbing at the much larger Olympic Green area.
Officials of the International Olympic Committee said that Beijing Olympic officials need to strike the right balance between security and access to the Olympic areas. Olympics organizers remain acutely concerned about security, particularly after the stabbing of an American connected to the U.S. Volleyball team over the weekend. The bomb that disrupted the 1996 Games went off in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park.
"Here in Beijing, there have been a few who have requested that more people be admitted into what are known as the 'Olympic common areas' and the organizing committee has been working to find appropriate means of doing this, which we welcome," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.
By: Rebecca Blumenstein and Mei Fong
Wall Street Journal; August 13, 2008
