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PARIS — Most of the seats in the lower bowl of Bercy Arena, the ones behind the team benches, are controlled by the International Olympic Committee.
They are marked and cordoned off, used by officials, dignitaries, celebrities, corporate partners and who knows who else … other than you either need to be someone of influence or know someone of influence to sit there.
They were mostly empty — row after row of empty — for Wednesday’s Nigeria-United States women’s basketball quarterfinal here. The U.S. will play Australia Friday.
Most of the seats on the other side, both ends of the court and in the corners, the ones that stretch 40 or more rows deep, all the way to the roof of this 15,000-seat arena, are sold to the general public.
They were almost completely full — row after row of fans.
They were consistently loud, excited and engaged even as Team USA, quite predictably, rolled to an easy victory 88-74. It was the Americans’ 59th consecutive Olympic victory as they pursue an eighth consecutive gold medal.
This was never expected to be much more than a showcase of U.S. dominance. Yet the crowd was significant and even supportive.
American fans cheered quality plays by the Nigerians, a push of encouragement for the overall development of the game, or perhaps hope that the game would remain somewhat close for as long as possible. (It was a six-point margin into the middle of the second quarter.)
What the disparity of mostly empty “official” sections and completely full “public” sections means for women’s basketball is open to discussion. It’s probably multiple things.
What is undeniable, though, is this was an odd environment and one that looked terrible on television. If you just saw the main camera feed, you’d think almost no one came to the game.
It was the opposite. The rest of the place was jammed.
Also mostly empty? The press tribunals. There is a decent sized American media contingent, but this was nothing like the every-seat-filled scene from Tuesday night’s men’s quarterfinals. The global press apparently hasn’t caught onto women’s hoops.
There was plenty of talk in the United States before the Olympics that the team needed to add Indiana Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark to juice interest in the team. Perhaps she would have, especially for television ratings back home.
But based on the clapping, stomping and singing coming from the sold-out sections here, there are plenty of very interested and passionate women’s basketball fans more than content to witness the brilliance of A’ja Wilson (20 points) and Breanna Stewart (13 points) and Jackie Young (15 points), let alone a team that plays hellacious defense on one end of the court and then has 31 assists on 34 baskets on the other.
Watching the U.S. women’s team is like tuning into one of those videos where they use explosives to drop some abandoned skyscraper. You know the outcome, you tune in anyway to marvel at the power that gets you there.
And plenty of fans wanted to see it in person. It is some high-level ball.
We are probably a generation or more away from women’s basketball at the Olympics becoming a competitive affair. That’s too bad. You can see the talent on the Nigerian team and recognize that with further investment in developmental programs that any number of countries can start producing strong teams, the way they do on the men’s side.
Can that happen without whatever important and connected people who would have access to the IOC-controlled sections of this stadium?
Probably not.
If the IOC isn’t going to use their tickets — like entire sections of their tickets — then at the very least they should put them on the market for actual fans to use.
Women’s basketball put on a good show here Wednesday.
It seems the wrong people missed it.
