Pre-Games poll suggesting Canadians apathetic to Olympics misses the point

I remember the lead-up to the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto quite well. And if you've been following the news ahead of this year's Olympics in Rio, you'll surely note the striking similarities.

Ticket sales were low, with approximately 450,000 of the 1.2 million Pan Am tickets available remaining unsold just weeks before the Games. Public apathy was widespread, as indicated by a pre-Games poll conducted by Toronto-based marketing firm Field Day Inc. And then there was this from Toronto Mayor John Tory less than a week before the opening ceremonies. 

"I think the only sport that we're not playing at the Pan Am Games is moaning and groaning, and Toronto on a regular basis would be qualifying for a gold medal in that," Tory shared with CBC.

For all intents and purposes, the 2015 Pan Am Games had been dubbed a failure long before the event had even begun. But the malaise around these international sports competitions always seems to fade when the games officialy begin.

Nine days into the event, Pan Am organizers began singing a completely different tune. Ticket sales had topped one million, with more than 300,000 tickets purchased since the opening ceremonies. Public apathy began to wane so quickly that, just three days into the Games, fans had taken to Twitter in droves in order to pan CBC's lack of live coverage.

"The numbers speak for themselves," said Toronto 2015 CEO Saad Rafi in an interview with CBC. "With one million tickets sold and millions of Canadians tuning into the Games, there's no doubt that Toronto and the region have embraced these once-in-a-lifetime Games."

Fast forward to the summer of 2016 and the mood surrounding the Rio Olympics begins to sound like a broken record. Ticket sales are low – so low, in fact, that organizers are planning to give as many as 200,000 tickets away in a bid to fill the Olympic venues. And as the CBC had reported earlier this morning, Canadians are once again low on enthusiasm.

A survey conducted by Angus Reid suggests that a lowly 53 per cent of Canadians plan to follow the action in Rio, down from the 60 per cent who followed the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Does this sound familiar?

With all do respect to the survey, it's simply too early to poll our Canadian interest in the Rio Games. With the advent of the Zika virus, coupled with the political and economical turmoil that currently besets the city of Rio, there really hasn't been much to go in the way of optimism. It's hard to get excited about the Olympics when incoming guests are greeted at the airport with a large banner that reads "WELCOME TO HELL." In fact, it's hard to even remember that there are Olympic sports to be played when the host country is beseiged by such threatening storylines.

But if my Twitter feed is any indication, Canadians went nuts for our national women's soccer team, which kicked off the tournament yesterday with a thrilling 2-0 win over Australia.

Canada's greatest hopeful on the track, Andre DeGrasse, has yet to run a single heat. Defending gold medallist on the trampoline, Canadian Rosie MacLennan, has yet to perform a single jump. Heck, we're still one day away from this year's opening ceremonies.

Now I don't mean to shed a frivolous light on the issues that have plagued the Rio Olympics thus far, but if the Pan Am Games were any indication, apathy can – and usually does – swiftly transform into patriotic fandom once the Games officially begin.

A similar poll conducted next week, with the Olympics well underway, would likely tell a much different story.

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