LONDON -- Vacant seats at London Olympics venues should be resold if they are still empty 30 minutes after events start, British Olympic Association Chairman Colin Moynihan said.
Moynihan was responding to reports in the U.K. media about banks of empty seats at events that British sports fans had been unable to get tickets for. U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has started an inquiry into the gaps."There must be a way where seats are empty half an hour into an event that they can be filled by sports fanatics -- we owe it to the teams and we owe it to the country," Moynihan told reporters at the Olympic Park yesterday. "The organizers can pretty quickly know who has acquired those seats and go to those people, especially if they're sponsors, and say 'Are those seats going to be taken?'"Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organizing Committee, said it was too early in the Games to carry out his threat to "name and shame" sponsors who failed to use their seats. Moynihan's proposal would cause more difficulties than it would resolve, he said.Coe said there will be fewer empty seats as the Games progress. Most of the vacant seats so far are a result of people accredited by national Olympic committees who are still working out where they need to be and when, Coe told reporters.Seats have been filled by students and teachers from boroughs around the Olympic venues, military personnel who are guarding the Games and fans upgraded from cheaper areas of the venues, Coe said. Seats were sold two days ago for yesterday's gymnastics events at North Greenwich Arena, he said."I'm not sure if naming and shaming is what we're into at the moment," Coe told reporters. "Let's put this in perspective, those venues are packed to the gunwales ... This is not going to be an issue right the way through the Games."The problem may not be caused by sponsors, Coe said, and Hunt, who told the BBC late last night that they were responsible, today revised his position to say the Games' sponsors are using their tickets. About eight percent of tickets went to corporate partners, a spokeswoman for Hunt's department said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
