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Ivan Alvarado / Reuters
Spectators sit among empty seats during the men's Group A volleyball match between Britain and Bulgaria at the London 2012 Olympic Games on Sunday.
LONDON - Britain was forced to bring in military personnel at short notice to provide security for the London Olympics -- and has now done the same to help fill thousands of empty seats at several venues despite the massive public demand for tickets.
Many ordinary people who applied for tickets -- in what was essentially a lottery – missed out and there were numerous complaints about the allocation process.
But the first day saw rows of empty seats at events including swimming, dressage, tennis, gymnastics and volleyball -- according to reports in The Guardian and Telegraph newspapers -- to the outrage of many, including U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Hunt said the sight of so many empty seats was "very disappointing," according to ITV News. "I was at the Beijing Games, in 2008, and one of the lessons that we took away from that, is that full stadia create the best atmosphere, it's best for the athletes, it's more fun for the spectators, it's been an absolute priority," he added.
London 2012 organizers LOCOG said it was looking into the issue, saying it appeared many of the empty seats were in "accredited seating areas," which are reserved for members of the "Olympic family," such as officials, athletes, their family and friends, journalists, and some corporate sponsors.
Oda / Getty Images
From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
At the daily briefing Sunday, LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe said most venues were "stuffed to the gunnels," but admitted some of the "tens of thousands" of Olympic family members had either not turned up -- on the morning after the Opening Ceremony and associated parties -- or had only gone for a short while before moving on somewhere else.
There was laughter as he was asked about the logistics of "drafting in the army" to fill seats.
"We won't be cancelling leave," Coe quipped, saying military personnel and others, such as local teachers and students, were simply asked if they wanted to see events when there were unfilled seats. Tickets were also being sold to the public, he said.
Coe, who said 75 percent of tickets went to the public, said he did not expect the situation to continue.
Will Mott/@wmottITV
This picture of empty seats at the swimming heats, for which there had been very high demand for tickets, was posted on Twitter by ITV News producer Will Mott.
"I'm pretty sure this is not going to be an issue that we are going to be talking about in three to four days' time," he said, explaining accredited ticket holders would still be "figuring out" what their duties involved, transport arrangements and other logistical issues this early in the Games.
"I do take it seriously. Where we possibly can, we will get people into those seats where and when they are not being used," Coe added.
Twitter was abuzz with pictures of empty seats and criticism of the large areas without spectators at the affected events.
Sally Bercow, wife of the speaker of the House of Commons in the U.K. parliament, said in a message on Twitter that she was “loving” the Games, but added she was “so cross at all the empty seats. Sort it out FGS! So unfair for all of us who wanted to go :-/”
Loving Olympics but so cross at all the empty seats. Sort it out FGS! So unfair for all of us who wanted to go :-/
— Sally Bercow (@SallyBercow) July 28, 2012
'How dare they?'
Comedian Jenny Eclair was equally annoyed. “I've seen enough empty seats in my life without watching the Olympics - tragic waste - how dare they?” she tweeted.
I've seen enough empty seats in my life without watching the Olympics - tragic waste - how dare they?
— Jenny Eclair (@jennyeclair) July 28, 2012
And former British newspaper editor and CNN broadcaster Piers Morgan tweeted that “These empty corporate sponsor seats at swimming etc are a total bloody disgrace. Sort it out, Lord Coe.”
London protesters decry 'corporate Olympics'
The Guardian said there were an estimated 500 empty seats at the swimming heats featuring Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; more than 1,000 at the gymnastics morning section, which was supposed to be sold out; and more than 3,500 at the volleyball.
These empty corporate sponsor seats at swimming etc are a total bloody disgrace. Sort it out, Lord Coe. #London2012
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 28, 2012
The Telegraph’s report about the issue had more than 1,000 comments from readers.
“I was at the volleyball last night in Earls Court. Virtually all the prime seats right in front of the court were empty. An absolute disgrace and extremely unfair to the competitors who would surely appreciate a crowd of supportive fans to cheer them on,” one reader, kafkander, wrote.
Olympics party: In shadow of Games, London celebrates
“The time to fix it is now. Simply issue a decree that if people are not in their seats by 45 mins before event start time, the seats will be re-let at cut price cash on the door fees … I would have liked to have gone but couldnt get tickets and/or was disenchanted by all the reports of the Pre Olympic ticket scandals and outrageous pricing,” another, whitevanman, said.
More London 2012 coverage:
- UK military asked to cover 3,500 Olympic security worker shortfall
- Olympics hurdle: US athletes' bus driver gets lost in London
- Inside Olympic Village: World's top athletes share college dorm-style rooms
- London's 'East End': From haven for gangsters to Olympic showcase
- Terror suspect's eye color? Flying cameras to spy during Games
- Gigantic welcome for London Olympic attendees
- Venues for the London 2012 Olympic Games
- Bad neighbors for Team USA? Occupy camp faces ax
- VIDEO: Olympic torchbearer proposes mid-relay
- Brits revel in gloom ahead of Games, but don't believe the gripe
- Olympic housing crunch: Landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists
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- Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor
- Go behind the scenes with our 'TODAY in London' blog
Leave a Comment:
Romney visits UK - SINGLEHANDEDLY destroys Olympics...
There is treatment for your OCD.
Diligence4ever, LOL. You made me laugh, That is so good. Maybe he should move there, We did leave and fight this country for a reason, Some are just not to bright, I feel he would fit right end..
I was shocked when I saw all the empty seats on TV. It is embarrassing and its something that should have never happened. Guess Romney was correct.
Britain is still in a recession..that is Made in America...remember?
...so, then, how can anyone still want a Republican in White House, when the world is still suffering from Bush's and Republican recession?
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL
If you READ the article, you'll know that a lot of seats were left empty because they were reserved for privileged Olympic 'family' In other words, people who get tickets and probably didn't have to do a lot to get them. What should happen, like in ANY venue, is, if you aren't in your seat after a particular set of minutes, and didn't pay money for your seats, you lose it to a ticket holder who can buy late tickets at the gate. I promise you people would buy them to get in.
The article is right. There is no organizational excuse for this.
It's Mitt's fault
yeah, why Mitt can't Read? that's the book title
One thing the Olympics organizers can do right away is note empty blocks of seats right before the event begins (especially those front and center), and ask people who bought cheaper seats if they would like to relocate. That should spread out the empty seats to the top tier, not grouped together where the camera shoots.
THEN they should allow in stand-by people who had been unable to buy seats previously to sit in the upper seats for a very discounted price. And if ticket holders for those empty front seats do arrive late, they can sit in the cheap seats in the rafters.
Just filling seats with random people (even if it is the military or teachers or kids) would infuriate those who bought $$ seats further away and piss off those who wanted to go so badly but were unable to get tickets. Don't encourage stand-by military to wear their uniforms because it becomes painfully obvious that they're there as last-minute seat-fillers, not true fans of that particular event.
Any ticket holders of blocks of empty seats who did not use those seats on Saturday and have blocks of seats for upcoming events should be required to RECONFIRM their intent to attend and fill all their seats 24 hours prior to the event or they will be re-sold.
Since the Olympic organizers knew that this problem also happened in Beijing, they should have already had a plan in place to deal with empty blocks of seats PRIOR to the Games beginning. Acting surprised that it happened again in London doesn't cut it. Contingency plans for every glitch should have already been in developed.
This should be reported to Her Majesty's Royal Committee of the Second Head Master Assistant of Proper Recreational Logistics. Forthwith.
romney's visit ruined the olympics? well good he got revenge for there burning the white house lol
@Cheetah - dem straight it should, orff to the Tower for them what's to blame! Now all back to Buck House for regulation tea and scones. Toodle-pip! ;)
This story sounds more fairy tale than truth......."We simply asked" local teachers and students if they wanted to see the Olympics.........So, you must have known IN ADVANCE that the seats were going to be unfilled right? Then why didn't you sell them to the people who applied but could not get seats? How could the "local teachers and students" ever gotten through London traffic to fill those seats if you waited to see if the family members etc. etc. were "going to be gone for a short while" to other venues. This all sounds like British BS and cover your buttocks stuff Monte Python style.
The article stated that the seats were all sold out -- it was the seats reserved for the "corporate sponsors" near the front that were vacant.
Ordinary people (meaning the non-corporate elite and the non-ultra rich) don't have access to any more tickets.
I would agree -- have a waiting line, and anyone not in their seat by 10 minutes into the event loses it to someone waiting in line. And the person waiting pays no more than 25% of the already over-inflated prices.
Spot on. In the end they will come up at least one, if not a series of excuses.
I believe they would say "bollocks!"
The seats for everything except the football sold out in advance - as it says in the article these seats (which if you notices are in blocks) are for 'the Olympic family' and corporate sponsors.
The corporate sponsors, presumably because the individual recipients didn't have to pay for them, don't value them enough to use.
The Olympic Family (IOC members from around the world) have basically been trying to flog their free tickets - all black market ticket sellers/ touts/ scalpers so far arrested have been trying to sell tickets awarded to international VIPs.
75% of tickets went to the public, 8% to corporate sponsors, 12% to national games committees and 5% to the 'Olympic Family'. It's these last three groups who have been less enthusiastic about turning up.
For the past few decades British have invented problems. Then they have unending British BS to cover them!
British gave asylums to all sorts of criminals, Islamic radicals and terrorists, wanted in their own nations!
When the nations asked the British to extradite them, they gave all sorts of BS.
Now they have security checks all around including missile shields! Here also see the BS they give.
Best were Tony Blairs BS before Iraqi wars. He got nicely paid by Morgan Stanley for his roles.
During the height of Iraqi wars, British made alliance with Shiite rebels in Basra and hid in their tents with all their guns.
Even Iraqis got so disgusted with their roles that they asked them to get out at the earliest.
Even on these, there were huge BSs to cover the cowardly acts!
Jonathan - bit of a downer on the British there. Starts to sound a bit like insecurity.
Reason for not extraditing many people: European Court of Human Rights - British courts want to extradite - the wretched ECHR says no. However, the Indian government have repeatedly asked for the extradition of the Americans who worked in India operating the Bhopal Union Carbide plant - America says.... no!
Asylum given to terrorists and criminals? Not convicted ones.... before they're convicted they aren't criminals (terrorists are only glorified criminals). Innocent until proven guilty - that's called the rule of law - thought Americans believed in that sort of thing.
Britain has security check at a major sports event - gasp! Shock-horror! America even uses metal detectors at school gates!
Britain uses missile shields - like Beijing did - and not really surprising given there's the world's busiest international airport about 10 miles down the road.
Tony Blair's BS before the Iraq War (he was only involved in one Iraq War) was in support of that GW Bush's BS (and Cheney's, Rove's, etc.). Al-qaeda weren't in Iraq until the US-led invasion. Saddam Hussein had no WMD. Why did Bush really want to invade was a) Oil, b) revenge, c) Freudian, d) a bit of all three.
The British didn't hide in their tents with their guns after making deals: but any disgust the Iraqis had with the British was as nothing compared to their disgust over Abu-Ghraib, Haditha, Mahmudiyah, and the 'CrazyHorse' killings of journalists and Iraqi civilians alike, amongst many others...... at least British pilots can tell the difference between a terrorist training camp and a) a wedding party or b) their allies (so-called 'friendly' fire).
I can only assume that you live in your glass house with the blinds pulled tight so you can count the stones you intend to throw in blissful ignorance.
Sounds like greed caused all the empty seats.
Unlimited greed and arrogance more than the normal are responsible for this and other mess.
The Olympic organizers are as Corrupt as any government. Serves them right. The fans and athletes are the ones who miss out because of greed. Nothing new here. And what would you expect from a nation that still treats empty-headed, do nothing royals, like they are someone they have long forgotten who to be.
A sponsor like McDonalds probably gets 50 seats per event. If they aren't going to use them they should give them back to the olympics to sell.
Next thing you'll see is blowup dolls filling the seats so the people don't bitch!
What a crock, If no one shows up 1 hour prior to the event the seats should be given away free, yeah FREE as there already paid for but whoever had the ticket didn't want to attend or give the tickets away to someone else who would use them. sad, sad, sad.
This is unbelievable considering the difficulty in obtaining event tickets. London is not ready for prime time.
maybe romney SHOULD have been in charge of this olympic's also,i dont remember any seat's having to be filled up by our military,...oh yea,,,out in the middle of nowhere!!!!!
The thing is his event was in the middle of no where and only held 5 people and even then it was only half full.
UT might be out in the middle of nowhere, but there sure are a lot of high tech businesses moving to UT and leaving CA. and other blue states. 6% unemployment in UT.
Also, I believe the colonies were thought to be out in the middle of nowhere. How did that work out for the Brits?
Do nOT worry, obama will find a way to have geithner send bILLIONS of your USA tax $$$$ to bail it out!!!
Mitt the twit is the one who lobbied the government for 1.3 billion dollars of taxpayer money for the Olympics and President Obama was not yet the president for you to blame.
Any old lie will do for the republicans anymore.
And what was the quote from the outraged British official about "its easy to do if you're in the middle of nowhere" referring to Mitt at Salt Lake City. He (the Brit) then proceeded to crow on like Mad King George, feign taking insult on behalf of all of London, and generally telling Mitt to piss off. Someone should tell that cackling hen that the colder crow gets, the worse it tastes. Of course, Mitt will get an apology when hell freezes over.
This is not like the military draft I participated in in 1972.
G.I.s often can get free seats at sports venues.
Wasn't it nice at the tropical beach they sent you to?
No tropical beach, but I got to see the Bob Hope show in 1968 somewhere near Saigon. I think Ann Margaret and the Golddiggers were with him. "Thanks for the memories," or at least the good ones. - Buzz
I know, who the hell are the Golddiggers? There are some who might even ask who is Ann Margaret.
Dear Ed and Buzz -
Call me a lucky bum. Even though I enlisted in '72, my first overseas assignment was to southern Italy. No USO tours visited us, but it was a good tour with good wine and nice Adriatic beaches.
Thanx for your service Mario. I went in 1973 in theatre, but not in country. We had a little "exercise" called Linebacker II. Should have done that in 1954.
All those empty seats make this Olympics look pretty pathetic this year. Athletes in those half-empty stadiums must feel underwhelmed and disappointed, after all, the Olympics are supposed to be special. Those corporations and sponsors that possibly inflated all those ticket prices ought to be ashamed of themselves; buying up empty seats in which others could've taken up (and wanted to go but couldn't because of cost or lack of seat availability) and showing lack of support to the athletes that worked so hard and dreamed of performing in such a large showcase to not those in the stadium, but also tv viewers worldwide.
You forgot about the scalpers.
From the sounds of it, people probably can't get to the events and are sitting in traffic somewhere.
Just wait until the TV ratings come out. The real ones not the NBC(CBO type) versions.
I wish NBC would just sut-up and show the games!!
all you see for HOURS is some lame idiot going blaaa, blaaa, blaa....
Maybe obama had his writers script it??
This IS England, after all. Those empty seats are only for true VIPs, not for just Riff Raff millionaires! Rather than filling them with the military like the Chinese might do, I suggest those seats be filled with the Royals and other aristocracy - Brittain's got plenty of them, and they have NOTHING better to do.
Interesting. Mitt Romney makes some business-focused, low-key remarks on the Olympics, including a note that it remained to be seen how folks would support the Olympics with their attendance, and was screamed at by the media (UK and US) and by John Kerry (John Kerry???!!!).
And now, empty seats? I am shocked. We should ask the Chinese how they filled seats?
The nobles wanted to go to St Tropez. It's just the Olympics, what's the big deal?
After your 4th Olympics sitting up front it's all a blur anyways. What's that, the masses think it's a big deal? Well that's okay, they might never see another Olympics...
Whatever you do, don't allow underprivileged children to fill those empty seats.
Children who will (most likely) never again have the chance to see such a grand spectacle right in their own back yard.
Children who could possibly be inspired to have the courage and fortitude to work hard, and never give up.
Don't give the young'ins a chance to dream.....even if just for a day.
That would be a terrible idea.
Simply saving the best seats for the privileged people is not the right idea. Those people don't really seem to care about the athletes or the sports. It's all about themselves, so they have parties to go to where they can see the event on live TV, so why actually show up and sit among the 'poor people'?
How would Mitt "F da Poor" Romney solve this problem?
Prayer and a moment of Silence.
You BetCha....Fer Sure.
When Mitt "F da Poor" Romney saw all of those empty seats..............he got a "Boehner".
You BetCha...Fer Sure.
I used to love watching the Olympics. It was all about many outstanding athletes all across the world. Now, it's simply about corporate sponsorship and who can make the quick buck before the party's over. People have grown smart to it and they're speaking loudly by their lack of interest. Have you noticed anymore how many commercials play in an hour of tv? No thanks.
There isn't going to need to be any 'terrorist act' to blow these Olympics--Simply the lack of interest is the big bomb there.
This is England of 1700 and England of 2012........... Humbly, I wish the Best to the common person.....
PS: Was Mr. Diamond of Barclays Bank in his saved seat?
Ouch!
Nothing new with this...saw empty seats at all olympic's when I watched them on TV..only China had full seats ( know why too)..with almost 2 Billion people they have people on stand by just for this.
I think our new President (to be) was correct. The Brits are not quite ready for Prime Time. Ha Ha.
I think a lot of the attendance issues are due to the events themselves. Let's face most Olymipic sports are so non-mainstream I'm surprised they fill as many seats as they do.
True..I never even knew they had a air rifle sport for medal..be hard to see if anyone is near the target from seat...unless they have some type of TV close-up for each target.
Yeah I'm more likely to attend basketball, volleyball or a swimming event than another event like air rifle or ping pong.
I guess Romney was correct, the Brits
keep stepping on their weinie.