Brazil faces a dilemma as a large number of tickets to the upcoming 2016 Olympics remain unsold despite preparations, news media reports.
Brazil sounded the alarm Saturday over the weak sales of Olympics tickets, reports the AFP (via Yahoo! News). Only a meager 50 percent of tickets have been sold thus far, while the Olympic events are scheduled to happen in about four months' time.
The Brazilian government is also concerned about a growing public apathy towards the Olympics, stemming from various factors including a conflicting political backdrop, issues regarding the economics of the country, as well as fears over the Zika virus problem all cause officials to worry about their stadiums being empty or only half-full during the worldwide sports gatherings.
Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Phil Wilkinson said that so far, only 50 percent of tickets have been sold. When considering the Paralympics, the picture is even darker with only a mere 12 percent sold.
Brazil's newly-appointed minister of sport Ricardo Leyser told local Folha newspaper that he plans to boost ticket sales and to stir up the Brazilians' excitement over the Olympic events. One measure that he plans to take would be to purchase the tickets and distribute them to various schools.
"There is a perception that the Brazilian population has not yet woken up for the Games," Leyser 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."
Leyser and the whole Brazilian government must work hard in order to ensure high participation amongst the public in the 2016 Olympics. Ensuring that would mean easing concerns over more than just the issue of public apathy.
It was earlier reported that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is currently facing public displeasure, and is demanded to be impeached. Not only that, the whole political backdrop of the country is so unstable, experts say that when the Olympics arrive, it is still unsure as to who leads what kind of government Brazil has.
Earlier reports also take note of unfinished Olympic events venues due to blocking of funds used for construction. This is because of suspected fraud amongst the contractors involved.
