Salt Lake City ? An unexpected glut of cheap tickets and rooms are available in Salt Lake City, as the first U.S. Winter Games in 22 years is set to open with a truly American flavor because few non-Americans have shown up.

Whatever the reasons international economic problems, security concerns, fewer corporate dollars available the result is that last-minute shoppers can grab some bargains: like a $885 opening ceremony ticket for $450.

“I tell people, ‘If you want an adventure, just show up late and buy tickets off the street,”‘ said John Bennion, managing director of games services for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

Olympic sponsors and national Olympic committees are unloading tickets on brokers and U.S. corporations are scaling back hospitality plans and relinquishing hotel reservations.

Yas Tokita, owner of Mountain West Travel, said Japanese visitors, who heavily attended the 2000 Sydney Games, are staying home this year.

“We had great expectations, and because of 9-11 and because of people who build bombs into their shoes and the war in Afghanistan and because of poor economic conditions in Japan, they are not coming,” he said.

Soft demand has left Park City with a surplus of 1,600 empty condominiums for the games, dropping condo rates, said Bill Malone, executive director of the Park City Chamber of Commerce.

In Evanston, Wyo., hundreds of hotel rooms once blocked out for Olympic workers and sponsors are back on sale. Evanston is 45 minutes east of Park City, site of snowboarding and some skiing events.

And while many Salt Lake City metropolitan hotels are booked for the games, Olympic lodging broker Coldwell Banker says more than 26,000 “room nights” remain open. Those vacancies generally are in less desirable hotels farther from venues, and their vacancies may not fall on consecutive nights.

Organizers on Thursday still had 140,000 tickets for sale to such events as cross-country skiing and the biathlon, early-round hockey, the closing ceremony and a smattering of other events.