London Latest - IOC Admits Empty Seats Concerns; Coe Defends No-Shows

(ATR) IOC Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli tells Around the Rings the ticketing no-shows that have generated negative global headlines are a "headache".

"It is a headache for the IOC," Felli told ATR at Lord’s, the venue for archery at the Games.

Felli said the IOC Coordination Commission for London had met with LOCOG leaders this morning and identified the empty seats at 2012 venues as an issue that needed to be solved quickly.

Transport concerns also exercised the minds of IOC and LOCOG officials.

Asked by ATR about IOC concerns over transport when people go back to work Monday, Felli emphasized that IOC president Jacques Rogge remains keenly aware of the possibilities for traffic congestion on the roads and crowds on the Tube.

"Let’s see how we manage on Monday morning," Rogge said at the meeting, according to Felli, who stressed that "Monday is going to be a difficult day".

Earlier in the day, Sebastian Coe fronted up to the media about ticketing concerns at the daily IOC/LOCOG press conference. The issue dominated the briefing. He appeared alongside Frank Fredericks, outgoing chairman of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, and Claudia Bokel, who will replace him after these Games.

Defending observations from journalists that there swathes of vacant seats in Olympic family accredited areas at the aquatics center and gymnastics arena on Saturday, Coe said he was aware of the issue bubbling up.

The first days of the Beijing 2008 Olympics were characterized by similar worries until Games organizers began to fill gaps in venues with schoolchildren and Chinese workers bused into the Olympic Green from in and outside the city.

Coe told the news conference that the no-shows were a familiar pattern during the preliminary rounds of competition as international federations and other Olympic family members worked out how to divide their time between sports and other commitments.

"This is certainly not going to be an issue right the way through the Games," he said.

He added: "I am not sure naming and shaming is what we are into at the moment. They [Olympic family] are trying to figure out how they are going to divide their time, what their responsibilities are.

"Please don’t run away with the idea that this is public response to these venues. Those venues are humming, they are full."

He said LOCOG was trying to solve the problem through a seating program which makes tickets available to students and teachers, while others would be resold. Coe said 1,000 tickets were sold on Saturday; tickets for some sports can still be bought online from the London 2012 site.

Military personnel providing security at venues are also being given the chance to fill empty seats during their time off. A group of troops was seen at the gymnastics arena today.

Coe rejected a call from British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan for tickets to be reallocated if they weren’t occupied after 30 minutes of an event beginning.

"I think we have got a more considered way of doing that and a way that judges the situation on an hour-by-hour basis," he said. "Trying to move it that quickly ahead would cause more issues than it would resolve."

LOCOG’s director of communications Jackie Brock-Doyle said a number of sponsors had confirmed that their guests were turning up at venues.

IOC comms chief Mark Adams made it emphatically clear, telling the briefing: "It is completely wrong to say it’s a sponsors issue."

In his final Games as head of the Athletes’ Commission, Frank Fredericks said he was pleased with the atmosphere at the venues he’d visited.

"I don’t think they are looking to see if there are 200 or six seats empty. They are here to give their best and the British crowd is amazing," he said.

Coe was also asked to comment on frustrations expressed by some visitors to the Olympic Park that they couldn’t see the Olympic cauldron when they showed up at the site.

"We are different from Vancouver," he said, a reference to the way 2010 Games spectators got to see the flames burning in one of the two cauldrons at the Olympic site, which was located next to the IBC. It was a popular sight.

"It wasn’t created as a tourist attraction," he explained. "It is in the Olympic Stadium and will remain there. For a few days while we are reconfiguring it so we can stage the track and field program, that is fine."

Reported by Mark Bisson and Ed Hula

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