Olympic organisers rule out ticket discounts

The organisers of the Athens Olympics have ruled out ticket discounts or giveaways in a bid to boost attendances.

Three days into the homecoming of the modern Olympics – billed as the “greatest show on earth” and crowd levels at many venues are becoming a major concern.

Venus Williams played her opening match of the women’s tennis event against Melinda Czink of Hungary yesterday, but there were only 500 fans on centre court.

The archers began their competition at a virtually deserted Panathinaiko Stadium, where Paula Radcliffe will hope to win a gold medal in the women’s marathon on Sunday, and there have been empty stands at the basketball and the softball.

However, Michael Zacharatos, spokesman for the Athens Organising Committee (ATHOC), said: “We will not be giving out tickets and there will not be discounted tickets sold because that would be unfair to those who have paid full price.”

ATHOC have put the poor attendances down to the fact that some of the sports are not familiar to the locals.

However, some the early games in the basketball and football – Greece’s two most popular sports – have taken place in almost empty venues.

“With all the interest that’s followed Greece winning the European Championship, I’m surprised that there haven’t been more people at the games,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who attended one match.

“But it’s the same at many other events at the Olympics. I saw a rowing event where you could have had time to shake hands with all the spectators.”

The Greek football team has been well supported but ATHOC believe the quality of the competition is putting the locals off.

Zacharatos said: “The Olympic football tournament is not up to the standard of the European Championships or the World Cup or the South American championship.”

ATHOC claim that, overall, they have sold 56% of tickets with more than 2.9 million out of a total of 5.3 million already taken.

The goal is to sell 3.4 million tickets, and Athens 2004 Zacharatos predicted sales will increase as the games become “more exciting”.

In Sydney four years ago, organisers said they sold 92% of the 5.7m tickets.

The Greeks are clearly banking on crowds picking up when the main athletics programme begins on Friday.

“We are confident that Greeks will flow to the stadiums, as well as international visitors,” said Zacharatos.

However they have been sufficiently concerned to have launched a national television campaign on Sunday to boost sales.

In a poll last month, only one in five Greeks said they planned to buy tickets.

Security fears and the late rush to finish venues have cut into tourist sales with US ticket agents saying they ordered 30% less tickets than Sydney.