Gonzo Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Looks like another Turin type fiasco in the making, where all the cheap seats are full while all the sponsor seats/the good seats in full TV view are empty http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/london-2012-olympic-empty-seats?CMP=twt_gu https://twitter.com/#!/search/empty%20seats Same at the basketball, gymnastics & tennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Fan Darcy Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Lord Coe has promised to name and shame sponsors who waste their tickets. Oh wow. Wonder how that will go down. But that is pretty pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micheal_warren Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 There are excellent crowds at the rowing!!! Excellent atmosphere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob2012 Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Every single Olympics the same. IOC need to severely reduce the corporate freebies if they're not going to use them. But hasn't taken away from atmosphere. It's just a shame that in the swimming in particular those seats are at the front. Most venues look packed, even those affected. Wouldn't call this a fiasco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micheal_warren Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Every single Olympics the same. IOC need to severely reduce the corporate freebies if they're not going to use them. But hasn't taken away from atmosphere. It's just a shame that in the swimming in particular those seats are at the front. Most venues look packed, even those affected. Wouldn't call this a fiasco. Neither would I. But do feel the IOC should do something about it though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intoronto Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Every single Olympics the same. IOC need to severely reduce the corporate freebies if they're not going to use them. But hasn't taken away from atmosphere. It's just a shame that in the swimming in particular those seats are at the front. Most venues look packed, even those affected. Wouldn't call this a fiasco. Not Vancouver! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deawebo Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Well, but badminton looks crowded, so does beach volleyball... I think crowds are making well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NY20?? Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Vancouver did a great job fixing this problem before their Games even started. Hope London solves this as soon as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faster Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Rob 'freebies' hardly. The sponsors pay for their tickets like everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob2012 Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Rob 'freebies' hardly. The sponsors pay for their tickets like everyone else. That's even worse then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiejie Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 How quickly we forget our lessons. From 2010: http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/summer-sports/0211011-ioc-chief-convinced-london-2012-will-not-suffer-beijings-ticket-problems You know, a lot of people assume that all those empty seats on the opposite side of the stands are for commercial sponsors, but I'm not sure that's 100% true. I know in Beijing I was rather tight with a seriously major sponsor's highest China-based official, and he said that their tickets were on the same side in the same stands as the general publics. And that they had to fight for an allocation also. So perhaps only part of those empty seats you see at London were designated for sponsors. IMO, the bigger problem I saw in Beijing...and my guess is repeated in London... was: 1) Too much just-in-case space set aside for "the IOC family" and NOC officials--very few of whom ever showed up, even at premier events. and 2) WAY WAY WAY too much space set up for the media. It was galling to see row after row of media desks set up for something like swimming, and maybe 5 spaces out of 100 taken. And media desks take up a lot of room. Every set up appears to be the equivalent of about 20 spectator seats. A lot of us were livid to see this, and pretty furious at the non-attending press corps as well as the BOCOG bozos who designated huge amounts of venue seating real estate to accommodate them. A better system for accommodating media needs to be developed, whether it's a press pool that draws lots for a desk in a venue per event, or some other method. How quickly we forget our lessons. From 2010: http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/summer-sports/0211011-ioc-chief-convinced-london-2012-will-not-suffer-beijings-ticket-problems You know, a lot of people assume that all those empty seats on the opposite side of the stands are for commercial sponsors, but I'm not sure that's 100% true. I know in Beijing I was rather tight with a seriously major sponsor's highest China-based official, and he said that their tickets were on the same side in the same stands as the general publics. And that they had to fight for an allocation also. So perhaps only part of those empty seats you see at London were designated for sponsors. IMO, the bigger problem I saw in Beijing...and my guess is repeated in London... was: 1) Too much just-in-case space set aside for "the IOC family" and NOC officials--very few of whom ever showed up, even at premier events. and 2) WAY WAY WAY too much space set up for the media. It was galling to see row after row of media desks set up for something like swimming, and maybe 5 spaces out of 100 taken. And media desks take up a lot of room. Every set up appears to be the equivalent of about 20 spectator seats. A lot of us were livid to see this, and pretty furious at the non-attending press corps as well as the BOCOG bozos who designated huge amounts of venue seating real estate to accommodate them. A better system for accommodating media needs to be developed, whether it's a press pool that draws lots for a desk in a venue per event, or some other method. Not sure why there was a stutter and a repeat in the above post. Gremlins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDLondon Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 IMO, the bigger problem I saw in Beijing...and my guess is repeated in London... was: 1) Too much just-in-case space set aside for "the IOC family" and NOC officials--very few of whom ever showed up, even at premier events. Agreed! We had empty seats at the OC in the 'IOC Family' area which made certain audience tickets a little tricky! When you know how many people would have loved a ticket, that does feel wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotosy Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 London organisers investigating empty seats - London's Olympic organisers launched an investigation into empty seats on the first day of the Games on Saturday. On a school holiday and after months of public complaints over the inability of thousands in Britain to buy tickets, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the minister responsible for the Olympics, said he was disappointed by the empty seats and that the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) were looking into it. "LOCOG are doing a full investigation into what happened," Hunt told publicly funded broadcaster BBC one day after a widely praised opening ceremony starring Queen Elizabeth, Paul McCartney and Rowan Atkinson. Television coverage of events on Saturday showed and visitors to venues found scores of empty seats in the early part of the day at the aquatics centre, in the basketball arena and later on at Wimbledon for the tennis. There was also plenty of space to stretch out in the Olympic Park. "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, because that creates the best atmosphere. So we are looking at this very urgently at the moment," Hunt said. Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said he was surprised that the events were not full. LOCOG became used to putting up the "sold out" sign within minutes of each tranche of tickets going on sale to the public. ... Reuters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzo Posted July 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180222/Olympic-seating-Day-Games-sees-banks-seats-key-venues.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotosy Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Troops, students, teachers to fill Olympic seats Troops, teachers and students are getting free tickets to fill prime seats that were empty at some Olympic venues on the first full day of competition. Organizing chief Sebastian Coe answered widespread criticism Sunday by predicting that seats left unused, largely by Olympic and sports officials, will not be an issue as the games proceed. "It is obvious, some of those seats are not being used in the early rounds," he said at a briefing. He declined to blame Olympic sponsors, whom he had earlier promised to "name and shame" if they did not use their allocations. Sponsors, including Coca-Cola and Visa, defended their use of allotted tickets – 8 percent of the 8.8 million available tickets. The issue is sensitive for Olympic organizers and British sports fans after hundreds of thousands of people failed to get tickets in an initial public ballot. "There is not a single person who thinks it is shambolic," Coe insisted, adding no one would object to free tickets for military personnel who "stepped up to the mark" this month to help solve a security staffing crisis at venues. Coe's organizing team has long promised to fill venues and avoid a similar problem at the Beijing Olympics. ... Army personnel attended gymnastics sessions Sunday morning at North Greenwich Arena during down time from security duties. "There are a whole bunch of the military actually sitting in those seats at the moment. We can and we have moved them in there," Coe said. Students and teachers from east London neighborhoods also would get late calls for free tickets, having already been accredited in a planned reallocation program. Some ticket holders will get upgrades inside venues, Coe said. AP http://www.huffingto...ly-empty-seats/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deawebo Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 It's my inagination or Old Trafford has an empty stand? The third one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiejie Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Seb Coe is fooling himself if he thinks that the problem is going to be limited to the "early rounds." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Our papers are reporting that it's mainly the "IOC family" that aren't using their tickets. Galling. More empty seats at swimming today. Big sections. I don't see these empty seats as evidence of the Brits' lack of enthusiasm. I think they've already welcomed the Games with fantastic energy. Clearly there are lots of people who would go if they could. I see the empty seats as yet another example of IOC hubris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BethnalGreen Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Our papers are reporting that it's mainly the "IOC family" that aren't using their tickets. Galling. More empty seats at swimming today. Big sections. I don't see these empty seats as evidence of the Brits' lack of enthusiasm. I think they've already welcomed the Games with fantastic energy. Clearly there are lots of people who would go if they could. I see the empty seats as yet another example of IOC hubris. Everybody is pretty angry in the UK about it actually because lots of brits tried to get tickets and were told it was sold out and then can see the empty seats on tV. They are giving the seats for free to students, teachers and the military. I saw a lot of soldiers enjoying the gymnastics today. Apparently at Wimbledon, they were telling people if they could find seats they could sit in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDLondon Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 It is annoying and it could become the new sport of the Games - spot the IOC Family section! The IOC section was only about 70% full during the Opening Ceremony which I would have expected them to show for. We had to borrow random Gamesmakers so that we could get the blue sea silk stunt to work properly. The road race section was virtually empty and at the rowing this morning, there were exactly 38 people in the IOC block which could have held a few thousand. The sabre finals had a better turnout - about 2/3rds full. Surely it's not beyond the IOC members to determine a few days beforehand which events they will attend so the other seats could be re-allocated. I even understand that security might mean they don't want the general public in there but surely there are enough accredited off-duty people to fill them up with the caveat that if an IOC bod shows and needs a seat, they'd be first out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 The IOC should issue a formal apology. It's disgusting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NY20?? Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 Watching Gymnastics right now. It's bit of an obvious patch-up seeing the large group of uniformed serviceman sitting at the one corner of the venue that was empty yesterday. But I suppose filled seats are filled seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 Watching Gymnastics right now. It's bit of an obvious patch-up seeing the large group of uniformed serviceman sitting at the one corner of the venue that was empty yesterday. But I suppose filled seats are filled seats. I wonder if they even want to be there or if they were drafted. The uniforms do make it very obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micheal_warren Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 The IOC need to make sure this doesnt happen again. The UK have really got behind the games and this is not helping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiejie Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 Well, since apparently the Sochi 2014 ticketing process has been halted pending IOC review, here's an opportunity for them to step up to the plate and start by severely limiting IOC/NOC allotment of seats to 50 per prelim and 100 per medal round, QF, SF, Finals events. First come first serve. When you look at the size of what seems to be allotted to them (it's fairly obvious, as it's the best seats in the house), it's staggering. Consolidated from all events, the IOC/NOC family allotments may be up in 6 figures in terms of tickets. The only other method I can think of that might work is that IOC/NOC seats must be occupied 30 minutes before event starts; otherwise, seats will be given to the standby/reserve queue. Separate issue on how a standby/reserve queue could be developed and managed, but I'm sure it could be done and better to try something else than have all the empty seats. I don't see security as an issue, since the public has to pass through security checkpoints (sometimes layers thereof) anyway. The IOC doesn't want to sit with unwashed masses, to be sure, but that's an elitist problem not a security problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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