Games chiefs scramble to end empty seats fiasco

Olympic organisers scrambled to quell a backlash over images of half-empty stands at the London Olympics as a government minister said an urgent inquiry had been launched to identify 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 8.8m tickets were outraged by footage of empty seats at key venues including Wimbledon, one of the hottest tickets in world tennis.

The chairman of organising committee Locog, 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 and 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 said only 8% of allocated tickets went to big corporate sponsors and that 75% of tickets were in the hands of the public.

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.

He said 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 ticketholders.

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,” he added.

But there was public outcry over the debacle.

“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 42-year-old teacher. “We would love to be there.”

Organisers said they were already in touch with the International Olympic Committee to discover who failed to show up and why.

“We are trying to find out who these tickets belonged to,” said an official.