He said he was looking to blow stuff up. I'm willing to guess other people felt the same way. An empty arena will of course remain empty until the first player logs in.
And it will still be empty for most purposes after that. I have played in EW long enough. Even with three to four players you are still for the most part "alone" , and that kind of gameply is not what the most of us are looking for. We are looking for
multi player action. Large battles and stuff
To ask a single player to do what actually would require a general action by the community is quite a demand. Fine in theory, but sucks practically - because for the most part it simply won't work. Especially as the total numbers at the time the OP was posted, the total population (all arenas) is quite low. And see all the failed attempts to get things going in other arenas which we do know that many players actually would like to do.
At the end of the day, most players will congregate in LW, particularly at low population times. That's our "playground", and I do understand (to some extend) when someone is frustrated by having certain important gameplay aspects excluded by the map currently up.