Games venues stuffed to the gunnels?

[egor110]

If you were going to miss 45mins of a event you'd not want to pay, that could be almost a whole game of beach volleyball or half a game of basketball.

[IrateNinja]

Nothing new really...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/12/emptys...

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/5712234/

[egor110]

Your right it isn't anything new but we can do something about it.

[baldy1926]

Just watching the ladies beach volleyball on tv.
Purely to see how the GB team get on of course.
It cant be any more than 2/3rds full

[tomw2000]

Simple solution: give the seats (free) to
all those who as a result of The Glorious opening ceremony, have now been inspired to take up regular sport.

Both of them will love it. *guffaw*

[Barreti]

Steve Zodiac said:

This is the answer, but I'd give them out free at 10 mins.

By the way, well done with the Silver medal XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Edited by Steve Zodiac on Sunday 29th July 15:56

Great, thanks for spoiling that for me. We can't all watch events live you know and I've got the BBC website paused while I grab a coffee.

[Steve Zodiac]

Barreti said:

Steve Zodiac said:

This is the answer, but I'd give them out free at 10 mins.

By the way, well done with the Silver medal XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Edited by Steve Zodiac on Sunday 29th July 15:56

Great, thanks for spoiling that for me. We can't all watch events live you know.

Apologies,

although it is being mentioned absolutely everywhere on tv & in all written & visual media, hard to avoid the big news.

[Barreti]

Thanks Steve. Its a blooming media blackout if you can't watch an event live and its driving me mad !

Oh, back on topic. I have a lot of respect for Seb Coe after watching him race, but denying there are empty seats is a stupid thing to do when we can all see the seats on the TV.

[s3fella]

My daughter 5 yr old nnounced this morning that she wanted to go see the olympics, and I managed to buy tickets no problem at all today.
I will report back on the number of empty seats, although I reckon it will be packed as demand is very high.....





....for women's footy, New Zeland v Cameroon at Coventry!!


So I am not at all pissed that women's beach volleyball is 2/3 full.

[colonel c]

Inflatable audience.

http://www.myplogger.com/article-044ddfc5e27f977a9...

[Puggit]

So what is Coe playing at with his comments? My bet, he's angling for a high up position in the IOC on the Olympics gravy-train.

[TonyHetherington]

kowalski655 said:

Steve Zodiac said:

Sky reporting a call for a 30min cut off, then seats reallocated

Great idea, except when the transport system implodes
Definitely needs a cut off but no doubt hard to implement..."I got stuck in a traffic jam coz of the zil lanes and you have given my ticket away! I demand a refund!"

That was my thought too.

Not only that there will be traffic and transport issues for people - so 45 mins, for example, is easy to run late, but also that at what point does the event start?

The point at which the venue opens? Well many people don't want to sit and get there early for many hours before something good happens. Equally, they may be wanting to only see their country's matches which are later on in the session.

It's a wonderful headline statement to make; "allow 30mins, then your seat's up for grabs", but the specifics will be more difficult to handle.

[Bluebarge]

baldy1926 said:

Just watching the ladies beach volleyball on tv.
Purely to see how the GB team get on of course.
It cant be any more than 2/3rds full

I was there for the morning session. There was a large block of empty seats but these were reserved for the other teams/Olympic officials. LOCOG are contractually obliged to provide these, and it is inevitable that some will be empty early on in the games when all athletes are competing. As some get knocked out of their own competitions,these will fill up.

Some paying punters also chose to turn up late, or only stayed to watch their own team.

You were free to leave your seat at any time to get refreshments/shelter from the rain - in a 4 hour session this has to happen. I don't therefore see how you could wander round the stands identifying which seats are not going to be occupied, which seats will be occupied but folk are a bit late, and which seats are temporarily unoccupied whilst little Johnny is being taken to the loo, all without getting in the way of paying punters and interrupting play. I also don't see how those seats could then be re-sold to punters who are outside the venue, who then have to be processed through the security checks, and get to their seats, all before the session ends.

As we get more to the business end of the Games, with qualifiers over and more medals being dished out, this problem will sort itself out.

The rest of the organisation, and the event itself, were outstanding.

[Highway Star]

At the ExCel Arena, not a MaccyDs in sight! No problems getting food though. Few empty seats at the front of the weightlifting, but the atmosphere up the back in the plebs section was great.

Soldiers doing a cracking job on security detail; polite, welcoming, full of banter and more than willing to pose for a photo with the visiting fans.

[FiF]

Seems as if the "Parents and Friends Ticket Programme" is also stuffed but in a different meaning of the word stuffed.