It’s sad, but probably not a huge surprise, that spectator attendance at the Canada Summer Games tennis venue in Niagara-on-the-Lake has been sparse, to put it kindly.

As Lake Report columnist Ross Robinson noted, these young athletes are our future Olympians and are putting on a great show. They deserve an audience of more than just teammates and a few keen fans.

At the Olympics, crowds in the thousands pack venues. At the Commonwealth and Pan Am Games, crowds are sizeable but not quite Olympian. Sadly, these young Canadians giving their all on the hard court, are doing so in relative obscurity.

Is it the ticket price? If so, perhaps the Summer Games folks should just open the gates and allow in anyone who wishes to cheer on the competitors. Any audience is better than none and these athletes deserve one.