Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio--the site of the first two Republican presidential debates on Thursday--spends most of the year as the home of more than 20,000 screaming Cleveland Cavaliers fans.
The people of Cleveland, it's fair to say, are not as excited about second-tier presidential politics as they are about basketball.
The first debate between the seven least popular GOP candidates (it's being called the "JV debate") began at 5 p.m., and just about no one showed up at the arena to watch.
Seriously. Look at these photos.
I know politicians have major egos, but it has to be pretty crushing to look out and see this audience. (NYT photo). pic.twitter.com/0FRHs7g7Or— Eric Berger (@chronsciguy) August 6, 2015
Seriously no one is there pic.twitter.com/QubA7VdpIz— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) August 6, 2015
"this isn't Cats that ticket seller outside lied to me" pic.twitter.com/oPp9Cp9kc3— darth!™ (@darth) August 6, 2015
Ain't no one there.
But hey, there are still around 2 million watching on TV.