Basketball: Fans voting with their feet at world champs

INDIANAPOLIS - The lack of attendance at the world championships has become the subject of much discussion through the first five days of competition.

Empty seats - thousands and thousands of empty seats - have been the norm at most of the games played so far.

The first perception would be that the championships may turn out to be a box-office flop in this basketball hotbed. That perception, say tournament organisers, is totally false.

"I'm very satisfied with the turnout of the spectators so far," said Florian Wanninger, FIBA head of communications.

"It's not normally until the quarter-finals that we have sell-outs.

"I think people look at the Dome, it's so big, even a crowd of 23,000 makes it look empty."

There were 22,619 fans on Sunday in the RCA Dome for the United States v China game, but the crowds have been much smaller there for most of the tournament.

Through the first eight sessions, total attendance there was 71,069 - an average of 8864.

Games are also taking place at the more basketball-friendly Conseco Fieldhouse, but just 36,415 fans attended the first eight sessions there, for an average of 4552.

That brought the total official attendance to 107,484 (average 6718) with still 13 sessions left, including the keenly awaited playoff games and championship finals.

According to organisers, that is already more tickets than were sold in 1998 in Athens, and also puts the tournament on pace to be the second-highest-attended championships in history.

Toronto holds the overall attendance record, from 1994, when close to 330,000 fans attended games.

Although no one is suggesting that record will fall, C. M. Newton, chief executive of the event, said he would be "surprised" if the total attendance did not hit the 300,000 mark, which was the Indiana Sports Corporation's stated goal.

One of the reasons that so many seats remain empty, despite the brave face of tournament organisers, is the view that the United States team are expected to easily romp over the field.

The fact that a couple of the first-round games were more competitive than expected, and that teams such as Spain and Yugoslavia appear capable of at least coming close to a major upset, should help later in the week, say officials.

"What we have seen so far is excellent basketball and competition, not an exhibition, for the United States team," said Bill Benner, vice-president of communications for the Indiana Sports Corporation.

"We expect the momentum and the interest in the tournament will continue to build."

The stiffest test for the United States may come before the final. Yugoslavia remain in many people's minds the second-best team here and the Americans may wind up playing them in the quarter-finals, due to Yugoslavia's two losses earlier.

No one wants to even imagine what an American upset loss before the final would do to those attendance figures.

- REUTERS

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