Mike tweeted:

"‏@2p2Pokercast Seeing stadiums half empty at Olympic events pretty sad. In Vancouver, even cross country skiing events were sold out and had scalper demand"

...so I just wanted to say that everyone here is absolutely furious, as there are almost no seats available to the general public. The events are indeed pretty much "sold out".

Tomorrow, for example, the only tickets available are fencing and weightlifting, unless of course you want to watch the Czech Republic v Turkey at women's basketball at 9am - not for everyone, I think.

Before the games, I applied for about 30 tickets, across various events and got a big fat zero in the "ballot". I grew up around the corner from where the games are being held, so they have a special resonance and it is very frustrating to see the empty seats.

The explanation thus far is that the empty seats (which happen to be the best in the house) are reserved for the "Olympic family" - i.e. Olympic and sports federation officials. One suspects that corporate sponsors are also in that mix.

The anger about it is getting louder and louder here - let's see whether the people running it can match the creativity of our bizarre opening ceremony...not often you'll get Dizzee Rascal and The Prodigy watched by a billion people!

Just thought you should know.

motte

Thanks for posting.

Two of my friends are competing in their first Olympics -- one in athletics, the other in swimming. I know their extended friends and family have been struggling to get tickets. Yes, I understand they're generally set aside for corporate sponsors and VIPs, which is understandable. But it seems very few were left for the public, which has been frustrating. And, from what I understand, an even smaller amount were available to non-UK fans.

I'll have to look at the stands in the background when I watch the telecasts. That's pretty sad.

Im not buying this 'all the empties are ioc and corporate no shows' bit. Watched the David ferrer tennis match today and there couldnt have been more than 150 ppl at it. He is one of the best players in the world and the venue was 95% empty, no exaggeration. No way the ioc and sponsors get 95% of the tickets.

Yeah, it's now beyond odd, the empty seats have now prompted an investigation. A writer from the WSJ offered this hypotheses:

The last part is a tad iffy, since even the final heat of the Lochte-Phelps showdown in the 400 IM did not appear to draw a packed house. Plenty of photogs, sure. But still not jammed with spectators.

It also sounds like blocks of tickets were allocated to participating nations, for their fans and even athletes. But it's still a major clusterf**k. My friends who are over there, one of whom is a US swimmer's coach's wife (holy degrees of separation) , goes on a daily quest to round up tickets for that day's competition.

The LOCOG better figure this out soon, both from a revenue standpoint and a PR standpoint.

I have to agree with this. I think the tickets were to over priced just like Vancouver. 2010 and pretty much every Olympics in the last 30 or 40 yrs.

Something kinda smells funny and it's not burnt chippies...

So your alternative explanation is?

To take your example, just head over to the ticket website and try to buy a tennis ticket. As I said in my post, I had already looked for tickets. There are very few available and most of those are for what would be reasonably described as minority sports.

As far as I can see, there are only two possible explanations. A major software problem that has existed since the tickets went on sale a year ago or the tickets are allocated to someone who is not a member of the public.

If you can find tickets available when you logon from Canada then we should talk because there is a killing to be made selling them on!

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what is the alternate interpretation then? People from the public bought tickets and decided not to use them? Or the seats weren't sold in the first place?

I guess that there's some proportion of people who attend only part of their ticket's worth (although apparently if you exit the olympic park, then your ticket gets resold) or who are soaking up the atmosphere but not in the seats. But the general atmosphere in the UK is very keen to get involved, and the number of seats still available for sale overnight seems very limited.

The empty seats are officials/sponsors. Kikiri is right, general public seats that dont get used are resold.

The entire ticketing process has been an absolute farce and it's really infuriating to see so many empty seats at events I tried and failed to get tickets to!