SHOWED UP: CNBC reports the reason for many of the empty seats at Olympic venues is because Olympic sponsors, who spend "$50-80[M] for the right to sponsorship, get a number of tickets" and they usually *award* those to their "top clients who they invite, and they make this quite a corporate event.

"Perhaps because of the negative publicity leading up to these Games about whether or not security would be tight enough, whether or not venues would be done, a lot of those clients simply have not shown up."
The LOS ANGELES TIMES reports that of the 53 events held last Sunday, only 14 "drew crowds that filled two-thirds or more of the stands." Predictably, "television executives from around the globe have been pleading with organizers to do something to fix the problem."

The TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL reports a recent poll of Greeks showed that only one in five planned to buy tickets to the Games.

The CHICAGO TRIBUNE’s Dan Mi writes, "There aren’t many Greeks here. It seems like the people of Athens are not really interested in the Games."

FEDERER OFFENSE PARDONED: Roger Federer yaks a forehand last week at the Rogers Cup in Toronto - and then proceeds to unleash a very loud S-bomb.

Despite the tennis "code violation", chair umpire Gerry Armstrong let the Swiss’ misdemeanor go.