Public outcry over vacant seats
Hunt suspects sponsor no-shows; Coe says schools, soldiers can fill gaps
OLYMPIC organisers scrambled yesterday to quell a backlash over depressing TV images of half-empty stands at the games as a government minister said an urgent inquiry had been launched to identify just who had failed to show up and why.
Sports fans from all over Britain who had been charmed by the Olympic publicity offensive but let down by a complex ballot system for the 8,8-million tickets, have been outraged by footage of empty seats at key venues, including Wimbledon.
London organising committee (Locog) chairman Sebastian Coe, who threatened to name and shame sponsors that did not fill their seats, said missing spectators were mostly officials from international sports federations, other Olympic officials, their families and friends.
“It doesn’t obviously appear to be a sponsorship issue at the moment,” Coe said, after Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt said he thought the vacant seats had belonged to sponsors. Coe, a former Olympic gold medallist on the track, said that only 8% of allocated tickets went to big corporate sponsors such as Visa and Coca-Cola and that 75% of tickets were in the hands of the public.
Sponsors P&G, Visa, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have all issued statements reassuring officials, fans and athletes that their allocated tickets have been and will be used by winners of promotional contests, partners, customers and employees.
“All of our guests are incredibly excited to be able to be a part of London 2012 and we believe that usage levels of our tickets have been extremely high so far,” Coca-Cola said in a statement yesterday.
The cycling road race and rowing events were filled on Saturday, Coe said, but other events such as basketball, gymnastics, swimming and tennis had seats going empty because they had been held open for officials like himself making short visits to venues or wrestling with busy schedules. “There are tens of thousands of people at the moment within the accredited family (of sports officials and guests) who are trying to figure out what their day looks like.”
Coe said London organisers were trying to fill spare seats by inviting local children and teachers to use spare tickets, selling more tickets, handing tickets to the military and upgrading other ticket holders.
He said Locog sold 1 000 tickets on Saturday and put soldiers into seats at the gymnastics. “I don’t think this is going to be an issue, certainly it’s not going to be an issue right through the games.”
But there was a loud public outcry yesterday. “As a Londoner with two kids desperate to take part we feel excluded and it is especially galling when you see all those empty seats,” said Sara Jourdan, a teacher.
Organisers said they were already in touch with the International Olympic Committee to discover who failed to show up and why.
A games official said it was still unclear whether the empty seats in several events, including Wimbledon, swimming, gymnastics and basketball, had been allocated to sponsors, international federations and athletes’ families.
British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan said one solution might be a 30-minute rule whereby fans would be allowed to take up vacant seats if spectators were late or did not arrive.
Hunt, the minister responsible for the Olympics, said he was disappointed by the footage of rows of empty seats. “Locog are doing a full investigation into what happened. We think it was accredited seats that belong to sponsors, but if they are not going to turn up, we want those tickets to be available for members of the public.”
Locog became used to putting up the “sold out” sign within minutes of each tranche of tickets going on sale to the public. On Saturday, some ticket box offices at venues still had queues of people seeking to buy tickets for selected sports. Reuters