Empty Seats Primary Issue as European Games Near Midway -- On the Scene

(ATR) As the European Games near the midway point, Baku 2015 chief operating officer Simon Clegg tells Around the Rings that the inaugural twenty-sport event being staged in Azerbaijan, a country lacking major event organizing experience, is progressing well.

"It’s impossible for an event of this scale and scope to ever reach perfection, but I think the fact that we’ve experience no major operational challenges is a reflection of the huge amount of work that has gone on over the past 30 months," Clegg said during an interview at the organizing committee’s headquarters in Baku on Friday morning.

Clegg, the former British Olympic Association CEO, stresses that the typical timeframe for planning and organizing an Olympics or major multi-sport event is generally six or seven years, also advising, "we’ve had to compress that to just over 30 months."

Empty seats and lack of star power in marquee sports like athletics, swimming and gymnastics are the most pressing issues that Games organizers have had to face.

After six days of competition, on average, events have been attended at a 75 percent capacity rate. With empty seats visible, potential ticket buyers have wondered why they are being told that tickets to events are not available.

Clegg explained that in most instances, the tickets have been sold, but spectators have either opted not to use them or have left during lengthy sessions during temperature hovering around 30 degrees Celsius.

"I recognize that it is frustrating when they see some of the outdoor venues which may not look as if they are full to capacity," he said. "The problem is when events go on for six or seven hours, you can’t expect people to sit in the sun for that long of a period of time."

Clegg added: "It would be irresponsible to sell more tickets than seats we have at venues."

Overall though, Clegg said he has been pleased with attendance figures, as events are being contested at 16 competition venues spread throughout the Caspian Sea city.

"There is no experience in this country apart from national football games and pop concerts as far as people buying anything, so we’ve had to create that market," Clegg said of the central Asian nation.

There have also been minor issues with the online ticketing website, although they have been attended to promptly.

Kids under 16 accompanied by a paying adult and people with disabilities can attend events for free. Ticket prices have been set low, approximately 2-3 Azerbaijan manat (slightly more than 2-3 U.S. dollars) for preliminaries and just five manat for many finals.

Athletics, Swimming Upcoming in Baku

Athletics takes to the track and field this weekend at Baku’s new Olympic Stadium, which has been in transformation mode since the opening ceremony one week ago. Swimming hits the water at the Baku Aquatics Center come Tuesday for five days of competition.

Major European stars are not in Baku due to scheduling conflicts such as this weekend’s European Athletics Team Championships in Cheboksary, Russia and other upcoming regularly scheduled events on the calendar.

Olympic Stadium in Baku can typically seat 60,000 or more, numbers that are unlikely to be reached during this weekend’s athletics team event for men and women.

"Athletics begins tomorrow and we’re hoping for a good turn-out, but we have to be realistic," Clegg said. "The massive stadium can hold 68,000 people, but we hope the local team will help generates a good turnout."

Clegg said that the lack of major names competing in athletics and swimming "does not detract" from the inaugural edition of the European Games. The former British Olympic Association executive even views it as a positive for the European Olympic Committees (EOC), strengthening its negotiating power as it seeks a host for the next edition scheduled for 2019.

"I think we have demonstrated is that you can organize a major multi-sport level international event without having top level track and field and swimming stars," Clegg said.

The Netherlands withdrew from hosting the 2019 edition due to lack of government financial support just two days before the Baku Games kicked off.

The EOC said it will re-launch the bidding contest to newcomers while vowing to resume discussions with five other potential hosts who previously lost out to the Dutch bid.

The EOC seeks to find a host city as soon as possible with four years to go until the next edition. Prague and Lyon are thought to be among the five cities which originally expressed interest.

If negotiations are successful with one of them, a new host could be selected by the end of 2015.

Reported by Brian Pinelli in Baku

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