Putin invites Snowden to Winter Olympics in Sochi

[qh4dotcom]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/putin-snowden-olympics_n_4627436.html

[CPUd]

More like, "he can come if he wants to, same as everyone else"

[Zippyjuan]

Putin wants SOMEBODY to attend. Most Olympic events are usually sold out long in advance- there are tons and tons of tickets still available for Sochi.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/sochi-still-scrambling-sell-tickets-olympics-amid-signs-102112436--oly.html


Sochi still scrambling to sell tickets for Olympics amid signs spectators staying away


LONDON - What if they held an Olympics and nobody came?

The situation isn't that bleak, of course, for the Sochi Games. Yet, with less than three weeks to go until the opening ceremony, hundreds of thousands of tickets remain unsold, raising the prospect of empty seats and a lack of atmosphere at Russia's first Winter Olympics.

There are signs that many foreign fans are staying away, turned off by terrorist threats, expensive flights and hotels, long travel distances, a shortage of tourist attractions in the area, and the hassle of obtaining visas and spectator passes.

"Some people are scared it costs too much and other people are scared because of security," senior International Olympic Committee member Gerhard Heiberg of Norway told The Associated Press. "From my country, I know that several people and companies are not going for these two reasons. Of course, there will be Norwegians there but not as many as we are used to."

Sochi organizers announced last week that 70 per cent of tickets have been sold for the games, which run from Feb. 7-23 and represent a symbol of pride and prestige for Russia and President Vladimir Putin.


And that is even with their seating cut in half from what it was planned to be.


Sochi officials have refused to divulge how many tickets in total were put up for sale, saying the figure would only be released after the games.

However, according to IOC marketing documents seen by the AP, Sochi had a total of 1.1 million tickets on offer. That would mean about 300,000 tickets remained available.

By comparison, 1.54 million tickets were available for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and 97 per cent (1.49 million) were sold. For the 2012 Summer Games in London, organizers sold 97 per cent (8.2 million) of their 8.5 million tickets.

Heiberg, who chairs the IOC marketing commission, said the Russians have cut down by 50 per cent on the number of spectators originally planned for the mountain events for security reasons.