IOC ‘must implement new ticketing system’

THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) must take control of Olympic ticketing and create a new platform for future Games to avoid the embarrassment of empty seats, British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan said yesterday.

He said the BOA would raise the issue with the IOC at the post-games briefing in Rio de Janeiro after images of empty places at multiple venues infuriated British sports fans who had been unable to buy tickets for supposedly sold-out events.

Empty spots in so-called “accredited seating” reserved for games officials, their friends and family, have resulted in soldiers and students being drafted in to fill the gaps at venues such as Wimbledon and the Aquatic Centre.

The sight of rows of empty seating is particularly galling for games organisers who had promised to avoid the situation that occurred in Beijing four years ago when the host nation was forced to bus in spectators to fill empty spaces.

“This is an opportunity for the IOC to put in place a ticketing system that can be improved at each games,” Moynihan told reporters.

“It is so important to the sporting public of the host city to get this right that the IOC should take this on and make the initial investment in the platform that can deal with the myriad complexities associated with running 26 world championships at the same time.

“The IOC have got to take the lead to make sure that the investment is in place for a state-of-the-art ticketing programme that can then be improved from games to games. I don’t think they should take 100% control of the system, but they should create the platform that the host city needs to build on and adapt and then work with the IOC to make it appropriate for a different Games environment,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the London organising committee said attendance for Olympic Park venues had been over 90% each day, while capacity for all venues was about 86%. Another 3,800 “reclaimed” tickets from the Olympic family were put on sale on Monday night over 30 sessions and about 15 sports, and all had been snapped up by yesterday morn- ing, the spokeswoman said.

The situation, according to Moynihan, was not going to change substantially during the London Games and regrettably images of empty seating would continue to be beamed around the world.

An IOC spokesman said: “Everything from the IOC point of view is constantly under review. Our internal auditors were asked before the games to look into the ticketing system and to update it and look at how things are done at the IOC level.

“We are looking into how we distribute our tickets to our national Olympic committees.

“I can’t talk about what the policy will be, but our audit commission is looking into it (and) there will be a report some time after the games.” Reuters