London’s Olympic organizers are facing scrutiny over empty seats during the games, including at historically popular events like beach volleyball, gymnastics, and swimming.
The sight of rows of empty seats left a number of sports fans—who would have gladly paid the high price of admission—incensed.
“Empty seats at the Olympics?!! And my parents can’t get tickets to watch me swim?! Ridiculous,” said Olympic swimmer Faye Sultan, who is competing for Kuwait, via her Twitter account.
And Twitter user Tim Weber said, “Having failed to get any Olympic tickets, I’m doubly annoyed to read about hundreds of unfilled seats.”
“Empty seats is what happens when you don’t let people buy [and] sell their tickets freely. Markets work,” commented another Twitter user.
The head of London’s Olympics bid, Sebastian Coe, a former Olympian himself, said the empty seats were reserved for the Olympic family, corporate sponsors, and delegates.
“There are thousands of people in the accredited areas trying to figure out how to divide their time,” Coe was quoted by The Metro as saying. “My day yesterday is a good example–I went to about four venues and only stayed for about an hour in each one.”
Coe, who previously said that he would name and shame people who did not use their seats, told the publication on Sunday that “naming and shaming is not what we are into.”
At the same time, there are Olympic fans who came to London from all over the world expecting to be able to pick up tickets.
Spencer Wellman, 18 years old, just graduated high school and headed from California to London. He was one of the people standing around Olympic Park, holding a sign looking for tickets. Someone offered him tickets to the opening ceremony on Friday—for 900 pounds ($1,415), which was more than he was willing to pay. Still, he says he expects to pay 150-200 pounds ($235-$315) for a ticket to an event. His family spread out through the park Friday to try to find the goods.
Rya (who only gave her first name), 23, from Canada, could not get a ticket to the opening ceremony, even through her friend whose father is a Russian senator or through friends involved in the opening ceremonies. She watched the ceremony from The Calf pub in Olympic Park and still marveled at the experience.
“Can you believe that’s happening here and we’re so close?!” She said on Friday night, pointing at the television displaying the fiery Olympic rings.
Tickets are scarce because London Olympic organizers are imposing heavy fines for scalping—quadruple the normal penalty at 20,000 pounds ($31,000).
A person who came to London intending to scalp tickets says he now “doesn’t dare” to. He knows people who have been arrested already.
Fred Mayerson and his son, David, from New York, travelled to the games hoping to get seats to anything. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, they just stood outside of the venues to buy tickets.
“It’s different this time, you can’t get up to the venues because you need a ticket just to get into the Olympic Park,” said Fred Mayerson. “We flew here and it took a whole day and spent $2,500 and we can’t get in to see anything,” he said.
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