If you could get a cheap flight, and don't mind perhaps sleeping in a public park, there are clearly plenty of good seats still available at the Olympics.

With all the hulabaloo about the venues getting done, actual ticket sales didn't get a lot of attention until now, and the numbers are a little frightening - some said that only 25% of all tickets were sold going into the opening ceremonies.

The issue came up last night during the men's gymnastics, as the lower deck was sparsely populated. Al Trautwig made several comments related to this, mostly aimed at noting that the upper deck was full. Bob Costas also noted that locals had stepped up over the last 2-3 weeks and bought more tickets.

Reasons for the slow sales are myriad, from August being a big vacation month for Athenians to terror concerns keeping some from making the trip. I'd have to think too that demand is much more for medal-round events and not so much for prelims. That would explain the half-dozen or so completely empty bleacher sections at the rowing venue yesterday. It just doesn't make it look any better.

Not sure how dire an issue this is, as with all the infrastructure improvements I don't think Greece was ever looking to make money off the Games. It may linger as part of their history, though, which would be unfortunate. No one wants to be the Unattended Games.

In other news:

* The US lost to Puerto Rico in men's basketball, which is more of an "upset" than an upset. Most folks seemed to think the US was primed for a loss. Just not to Puerto Rico.

If you missed the game, the US more or less checked out until the fourth quarter, and managed to get the lead down to 9 before it got bumped back out to the teens, where it was more often than not (at least when the lead wasn't 20-plus).

Clearly, there's a need for a national team for basketball. I don't know how many times we're going to slap together a bunch of guys before this becomes obvious.

* Iraq's men's soccer team won its second game, blanking Costa Rica 2-0. They played another good game, a little less physical than the Portugal match. They're through to the quarterfinals, which is well beyond anything expected for them.

* Sports watched today: sailing, judo, boxing, table tennis, badminton, softball, soccer, beach volleyball, basketball, weightlifting, cycling, equestrian, and indoor volleyball. As you can imagine, very little of this was seen (or presented) all the way through. Not sure if that'd good or bad.