The empty seats .

Couldn't agree more.  The harsh reality seems to be that the allocation for joe public was very small indeed.  Was particularly gutting to see GB gymnasts giving it there best ever with empty seats in the background - an event that was supposedly sold out.

MCDONALDS HAS GOT EM!!!

TO INSPIRE A GENERATION!!

Better to see the seats empty than to have them filled with 'couch potatoes' who have never watched the sport before but convinced themselves that they 'had to get Olympics tickets'

Empty seats at the dressage too this morning , and there is a royal competing ( and watching ) . Letting the side down the organisers , cant believe there was not unfulfilled demand for tickets .

When you see the crappy British teams that have been put together for the Olympics and in the process denying a quality team from competing, you can see why there is a lack of support.

When you see the crappy British teams that have been put together for the Olympics and in the process denying a quality team from competing, you can see why there is a lack of support.

Perhaps you'd care to name one.

And now its raining !  Wonder is there an evacuation plan for thunder and lightning ?

It is standard practice to allocate a large number of tickets to the so called 'Olympic Family'. It happended at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics that I attended and some poor soul had the job of sweeping the falling snow off the seats of a block of 200 seats in the grandstand which none of the 'family' had bothered to come and occupy.

I fancied watching one of the equestrian events. There have been no tickets available for weeks. All of a sudden, today, tickets have become available for Tuesday, cheapest ones too, I doubt these are 'corporate returns'.

Where have these tickets been 'hiding'?

There are some tickets on the official site for the suites at the O2 for the gymnastics. Presumably some sponsors are feeling guilty and have returned.

The "returns" ( if they are that in fact ) are no good to anyone unless they live adjacent to London . The logistics of arranging flights , accomodation , transport just not a starter for most of us without a decent time frame .  That should be obvious to a blind man .

And its not as if its the first time London has had the Olympics .  Think they might have got it near right 3rd time around .

We will all enjoy the Games ( discounting the hype , the obsession with medals , the distraction it affords politically and economically ) , but who gets paid for not getting it spot on , its not rocket science , its a few computer programs and a bit of common sense . I'll recommend a few guys who can do that properly , and they are not geniuses , just efficient .

THERE WAS 48 TICKETS SET ASIDE AT THE VOLLEY BALL FOR THE DIRECTORS OF WOOLWORTHS

I saw empty seats at Fed's tennis match....how did that happen?

100m evening
and final relay evening

currently availabale at £295

THERE WAS 224 SEAT TICKETS LEFT AT THE BOX OFFICE FOR SADDAM HUSSAIN AND FAMILY TO PICK UP FOR THE JUDO HEATS

SOME ONE SHOULD HAVE TOLD THE BOX OFFICE SADDAM HUSSAIN DIDNT REQUIRE THEM ANY MORE

ITS ALL RIGHT SEB COE SAYING HE DIDNT WANT TO UPSET ANY OF IRAQS ASKING FOR THE TICKETS BACK ,BUTS THERES A LOT OF LESBIAND WHO WANTED TO WATCH THE JUDO ,AND WOULD HAVE LOVED THE TICKETS

LESBIANS NOT LEBIANS

gadaffi probably didnt use his tickets either

and the syrians might not be able to attend this week

IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN ON THE TICKETS IF YOUR COUNTRY IS AT WAR ,PLEASE SEND THE TICKETS BACK UNTILL THERES PEACE

Moose , I reckon there might  have been some "trousering" of tickets , lost in the general melee until now .  But as questions are being asked ,some of these have become "too hot to handle" .  Just a theory .  Was offered tickets myself this morning for the eventing  , but I was not interested at short notice with travel a significant logistical problem .

Anyway the initial blurb about tickets  I read way back a year ago suggested that ticket transfer was tricky .  Did that all go out the window with the baby and the bath water ?

THERES LOADS OF EMPTY SEATS BECAUSE FOREIGNERS HAVE BOUGHT TICKETS SO THEY CAN ENTER THE COUNTRY AND DISSAPEAR ,THEVE NO INTENTION OF WATCHING THE OLYMPICS

THE BORDER PARROL SHOULD STOP THEM WHEN THEY SAY THINGS LIKE IVE COME TO SEE ABU SINGH IN THE 350 METERS BACKSTROKE

AND WHEN THESE SOMALIANS SAY THEVE COME TO SEE THE THREE LEGGED RACE THEY SHOULD BE PUT ON THE NEXT PLANE BACK HOME

THERES ALOT OF THESE FOREIGN SUPPORTERS HAVE COME HERE TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILIES NOT THEIR COUNTRIES ,

IM NOT BEHIND THE DOOR

IM OFF TO WATCH THE FOOTBALL BEFORE I SAY WHAT I THINK

the "Olympic family" had a late night out on Friday and couldn't be arsed to get up on Saturday for "just the heats"

don't worry though, they'll be using "their" tickets all right for the finals

disgraceful show, and only slightly less disgraceful is coe et al trying to gloss over it.

Eight sets of tickets I applied for. I got one. Five more my girlfriend applied for. She got none. Then on the second ballot, she got basketball, only to be told it was then oversubscribed and hadn't really got any. I know of only one other person who applied for tickets who got any. This really has been a massive **** up which if had happened in another country would have been ridiculed by our press.

I applied for 10 things in the first ballot, got 3. Applied for another 5 things at a later stage and got 3 more. Found the whole process easy, and whilst I got mainly things I'm less interested in, I think the way its worked has been fine.

Shame about the empty seats, but that's the IOCs fault for giving away too many corporate tickets. Everyone knows that corporate tickets has got well out of hand at all top sport and the only way to deal with it is to react from the bottom up against the most grievous offenders by organising well publicised boycotts of them.

The variety of events and venues in a modern Olympics is so wide ranging that allocating tickets has become a nightmare . Competitors are going to finish up in "final " positions and their nearest and dearest will not have tickets . So finals are tricky in terms of getting tickets .

But heats , preliminaries , and non prestige sporting disciplines should be easily accessible  , given the contemporaneous nature of multiple sports taking place over a large area like in London . Even the BBC cant cover 2 events at the same time ( except on different channels ).

Nobody can complain if they dont get a ticket for the 100 metres final for instance , although personally I would find watching Mary Keitany winning the marathon ( probably ) more interesting and better value for money ( as it will be free ) given a choice .

The less expensive seats have been all filled apparently , which leads me to conclude there are cost considerations involved  , anyone who would pay over £100 for a seat at anything but the premium events wants their head felt ( unless they had a vested interest in a competitor at that occasion ) . Think the organisers have been left with the expensive seats , the public voted with their visa cards .  And it is very embarassing for those who are responsible for the sales pitch and the cost of tickets .

But it detracts hugely from the occasion for the competitors who are performing in half empty arenas ( Wosniaki played her match on Saturday against a British girl in front of a handful of spectators ) .

Colin murray was talking about this today on radio5, you will be pleased to know
he thinks "positivity will come out of the negativity"

Must have been watching David Jason this evening as Frost .  That exact phrase was used several times in tonights episode , motovational speaker etc .  Jumped in through a window of opportunity .

The less expensive seats have been all filled apparently , which leads me to conclude there are cost considerations involved  , anyone who would pay over £100 for a seat at anything but the premium events wants their head felt ( unless they had a vested interest in a competitor at that occasion ) . Think the organisers have been left with the expensive seats , the public voted with their visa cards .  And it is very embarassing for those who are responsible for the sales pitch and the cost of ticket

A very fair point Kelly.  I am just looking at the ticketing site to see what is available now and am reminding myself of how out of touch the prices are.  £325 and £225 to go to the women's basketball final? Really?  Compare that to any top UK event such as FA Cup Final/Open Golf/Royal Ascot/6 Nations/British Grand Prix/Wimbledon and it is no wonder there are still prime seats left for minor Olympic sports.

But those £325 seats allow them offer others for under £40.

I applied for loads in the first ballot and got nothing.  Applied for three things in second and got all three.  Went on site three weeks ago and bought four centre court tennis tickets for Wednesday for £30 each.  Could have easily bought loads more in the last month at very reasonable prices.  Any sports fan determined and persistant enough could have bought tickets if they wanted.

However it's wrong that Olympic family / corporate seats are empty and it needs to be sorted.  Difficult for the London organisers though, I have some sympathy for them.

Berto , the initial application procedure was advertised as a ballot .  Took them at their word , but  it is now glaringly obvious that it was not a ballot , otherwise at least one of the 20 or so people I know who applied for tickets at mainly non premium events would have clicked something .

Those of us who needed to put in place travel plans at reasonable rates were put over the rail by the initial procedure . Someone needs to take cognisance of that .  The procedure may appear to have worked OK for some , specifically those living near London who merely have to organise surface travel .  Part of the UK has to get on a plane to get near London , unless you are prepared for a 14 hour journey . Disenfranchised was a term I used elsewhere , probably appropriate .  But we are used to it  , without getting into any political / logistical debate .

Given there's no prize money, the IOC must be making an absolute fortune.

Where does all the money go? Stadiums are already paid for

Very surprised to see any sympathy for organisers. The whole thing has been a shambles from start to finish. 8.8 million tickets. Of which well over a million have gone to Olympic family and sponsors. Hopefully the Olympic family will be stripped of most of them for future Olympics and sponsors wont be able to basically **** the IOC and Rio up the arse as blatantly as they have this year. Thank **** we lost the World Cup bid.

I REMEMBER MRS THATCHER SAYING WHEN THERE WAS 3 MILLION UNEMPLOYED LETS NOT LOOK AT THE BAD PARTS OF THE FIGURES LETS LOOK AT THE GOOD SIDE OF THE FIGURES AND THOSE THAT ARE EMPLOYED


USEING THIS ANNALAGY YOU COULD SAY LETS NOT LOOK AT THE EMPTY SEATS LETS LOOK AT THE FULL SEATS AND REJOICE

WHILE WERE ALL REJOICING LETS ALL PICK UP OUR HYMM BOOKS AND SING ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFULL.ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

The jury still out on the effects of Thatcherism , Do wah . Judgement on the legacy will be made by decent historians in about 50 years .

NOMATTER WHAT FAITH OR RELION YOU ARE ,OR WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC YOU LIKE ,I PROMISE YOU ,YOU WILL FEEL BETTER IF YOU SING IT WITH GUSTO

KELLY THERE WAS A SONG BY DELL SHANNON CALLED KELLY ,I HOPE YOU HAVE LISTENED TO IT ,AND IF YOUVE NOT ALONG WITH ANYBODY ELSE I WOULD RECOMEND IT TO YOU

Do Wah - do you like the song written after your name? The manfred mann one?

FIFA run the world cup totally different to how the IOC runs the Olympics

And 2 hours of football matches at a handful per day isn't the same as loads of sports running all day

The last world cup had under 150 hours of action

This Olympics 2500 televised hours over a shorter time period

YES ,HE NAMED IT AFTER ME WHEN HE MET ME ON CREWE STATION ,WE WERE BOTH TRAIN SPOTTING AND HE TOOK A LIKENING TO ME ,WHEN I GAVE HIM ONE OF MY MAMS BUTTIES THAT SHE HADE MADE ME

IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF STEAM TRAINS ,I REMEMBER CLEARLY US BOTH JUMPING UP AND DOWN ON PLATFORM 3 WHEN THE STEAM TRAIN PRINCESS ELIZABETH CAME PUFFING PAST

I LOOKED AT HIM AND HE LOOKED AT ME ,AND HE SAID WHEN I GROW UP AND I HAVE A POP GROUP ,IM GOING TO NAME A RECORD AFTER YOU DO WAH DIDDY ,AS YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME LUCK AS IVE NEVER SEEN ONE OF THE PRINCESS CLASS OF LOCOMOTIVES GO BY BEFORE

HE NEVER TOLD NO ONE AS HE WAS A POP STAR AND DIDNT WANT TO TELL ANYONE INCASE THEY THOUGHT HE WAS AN ANORAK

there is a travel agent that still has heaps of tickets at inflated prices as they have hotels tagged onto them

maybe it is their tickets that will be resold, minus £150 a night rooms

I've got some rather expensive category A Boxing final tickets which according to the seating plan are tucked away in a corner of the arena furthest away from the ring.

They've released more tickets for Saturday nights' athletics . You can buy up to 4 tickets for £725 a piece.....might take the wife and kids out for the evening and knock out three large

Really. I've got tickets for Saturday night but didn't get the price grade I wanted. ****ing jokers. ****ing ****ing jokers.

£725 a ticket , strewth , you would expect to get on the track for that .  Beginning to make some of the golf prices where can actually play on the same courses as the stars seem good value . I can play Royal County Down or Portrush for £20 any day ( with a member ) , different values for everyone  entertainment wise obviously .

Way over the top , particularly as very few go on their own , so its £1500 a pop essentially .

jeremy hunt now on , what a **** him and coe

hunt is so smug

anyone tell me what sponsors have paid towards olympics and uk tax payer?

Tennis seems the most baffliing one.  Event apparently sold out but I've heard reports of loads of empty seats. Checked on centre court earlier and sure enough it was half full at best and we are not just talking prime location empties here, there were gaps around the whole of the seating area.

Yet there are no tennis tickets for sale for any remaining day and you can be sure the pictures for the next few days will show large areas of empty green in the seating.  They simply cannot have sold anywhere near enough tickets to fill Wimbledon's capacity.

you'll be able to jog round the track in 6 months time, for a few quid, doubtless the muggers will be back so dont go with a full wallet

the football 1/4 final at st james park is reported to have sold out, 52,000 but we doubt it has ???

That's because people WITH tickets can't get in!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19013655

Piss up. Brewery.

38 year old canadian bought tennis tickets legit, sold 2 for face value £ 50 each, was arrested and spent 2 nights in custody.

you've all read too many papers.

make out like London is the only Olympics to have some empty seats, do a search on any of the last few olympics and there are always stories about so many empty seats at a few things.

Yeah there's things that could be done better but i've seen a lot of full stadium's at plenty of different events so far.

Jul 30, 2012 -- 4:28PM, elisjohn wrote:

38 year old canadian bought tennis tickets legit, sold 2 for face value £ 50 each, was arrested and spent 2 nights in custody.

As far as I'm aware that shouldn't be a crime. I know it's not with football tickets for example. As long as you're not selling for more than face value it's not a crime.

Jul 30, 2012 -- 4:36PM, fairfranco wrote:

you've all read too many papers.make out like London is the only Olympics to have some empty seats, do a search on any of the last few olympics and there are always stories about so many empty seats at a few things.Yeah there's things that could be done better but i've seen a lot of full stadium's at plenty of different events so far.

I know where you're coming from. Our media love to have a go at other countries and ticket policies at major events. Now we've done it they've spent even less time on the story. We've been told for months, all events are a sell out. Yet they're not at all. People applied for thousands of tickets and got none. People applied for tickets, got given them but were then told in fact it was already a sell out. Yes, other countries get it wrong, but we have majorly. Two wrongs don't make a right and I'd rather see us get this right before we host the World Championship Athletics and try and get other major competitions, like the World Cup for one.

Change the Olympic five circles to two fingers, because that is what the organisation do.

its a shambles

The events have just about sold out of tickets available to the public.  The empty blocks for Olympic people are a contractual requirement of the IOC.  There will always be gaps in stands for some events.  I missed the first 5 mins of the first hockey match yesterday because there was a 30 minute snaking queue for McDonalds!  Your ticket is often for multiple matches so quite a few Argentinians and South Africans only turned up for the second match meaning some empty seats at the first.

At the tennis, tickets are for centre court all day from 12 til matches complete.  Most people will not sit and watch every point all day for eight hours.

Final point, the criticism of empty seats at previous Olympics has been more about a lack of interest in many sports/sessions.  I recall near empty stadia for morning athletics at previous games where as they will be near sell outs at London.

The ticketing process wasn't perfect but much of the criticism is over the top.

its a shambles

THEY SHOULD MAKE SOME DUMMIES AND PUT THEM IN THE SEATS UNTILL THINGS PUT UP ,PUT SOMW WITH DIFFERENT COLOURED JUMPERS ON

AT LEAST YOU DONT HAVE TO DISTURB ANY ONE IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THE TOILET IF YOU SIT ON AN EMPTY ROW

berto77 30 Jul 12 17:03 
The events have just about sold out of tickets available to the public.  The empty blocks for Olympic people are a contractual requirement of the IOC.  There will always be gaps in stands for some events.  I missed the first 5 mins of the first hockey match yesterday because there was a 30 minute snaking queue for McDonalds!  Your ticket is often for multiple matches so quite a few Argentinians and South Africans only turned up for the second match meaning some empty seats at the first.

At the tennis, tickets are for centre court all day from 12 til matches complete.  Most people will not sit and watch every point all day for eight hours.

Final point, the criticism of empty seats at previous Olympics has been more about a lack of interest in many sports/sessions.  I recall near empty stadia for morning athletics at previous games where as they will be near sell outs at London.

The ticketing process wasn't perfect but much of the criticism is over the top.


Maybe they should sell tickets per game. Or if people leave early or turn up late they can be shot dead as part of the shooting event.

IF I WAS IN CHARGE I WOULD HAVE FILLED ALL THE STADIUMS WITH DUMMIES AND WE WOULDNT HAVE LOOKED LIKE THE FOOLS WE ARE

TAKE ALL THE PRISONERS ON A LONG CHAIN AND LET THEM SEE THE VOLLEY BAL ,THEY MIGHT NOT WANT TO COMMIT ANOTHER CRIME IF THEY THINK THEVE GOT TO WATCH THAT

THIS DIDNT HAPPEN IN CHINA THE SECRET POLICE MADE THE POPULATION WATCH THE OLYMPICES,THEY MADE THEM GET OUT OF BED

I WOULD HAVE FILLED ALL THE STADIUMS WITH DUMMIES


You and your family could go

Just got back from the handball, and yes right by the half way line there are empty seats, (just the same as at Wembley)..

The rest of the arena was rammed..  Hoping to get some more tickets, but looking at how many people were in the Park, i very much doubt it..

THEY SHOULD MAKE SOME DUMMIES AND PUT THEM IN THE SEATS UNTILL THINGS PUT UP ,PUT SOMW WITH DIFFERENT COLOURED JUMPERS ON

different coloured seats is usually a help

BLACKPOOD ITS A GOOD JOB IM EASY GOING AND BUBBLY AND LET PEOPLE WALK ALL OVER ME ,OTHERWISE I COULD START SWEARING AT YOU FOR WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT ME AND MY FAMILY ,ITS A GOOD JOB YOU SAID IT TO ME AND NOT ONE OF THE USUAL NUTCASES ON HERE

SOME OF THEM WOULD HACWE SAID MEET ME AT BLACKOOD PARK NEAR THE SWINGS AND I WILL BEAT YOU UP

AT 7 O CLOCK AT NIGHT

I WOULDNT TURN UP AS IM MARDE EVEN THOUGH I CAN SHOUT LOUD

it is really a shame to call the games 'sold out' when at some events almost half of the seats are empty indeed.

a pal of mine tried to get tix but ended up with some for tabletennis, suffice to say he's a millionaire and could have easily afforded some for the basketball or latter stages of the tennis tournament.

it just goes to show how the whole commerce has taken over the olympic games, the people do only matter as long as they line the pockets of the big companies.

but don't worry mcdonalds &co. your time will run out soon because the flaws of the current system become more and more obvious to us.

There is a thread over on the golf forum regarding golf in the Olympics .  Think that possibility is a bit pie in the sky unless it is restricted to essentially not attract the main tour players .  Cant see Tiger turning up to be regulated like the current Olympic hopefuls in varying disciplaines .

Reference pricing though , I attended the Irish Open recently at Portrush ( first European tour event outside of majors -- which are run by the R & A -- to be sold out in living memory ) .  My ticket for 6 days cost a total of £41  , covered 6 days from 7.00am to 9pm , and food / drink etc was reasonably priced ( and accessible , and everything worked for 150,000 spectators approx over the period ).  Good value , the Olympics could take that on board .  £725 for one ticket for one session is twice the amount Fred Daly got for WINNING the Open back in the forties in front of large crowds in England .

First ladies quarter final just starting on centre court .  Less than half full .

Anyone think they have sorted out the ticket thing satisfactorily ?

Well. I have been unable to access the ticket website since yesterday evening. Apparently the error message I get means the IP address has been blocked because they think I'm a bot (due to constantly trying for tickets).

A quick reboot of the homehub and all sorted.