Quote:
Originally Posted by Medusa
Ooh, thank you for posting this! I noticed this morning when watching some of the stuff I recorded last night that there seemed to be a ton of empty seats at several of the events. It made me wonder what had happened because I thought that people would be clamoring to get a seat.
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Actual demand for tickets has been very significant with all initial tickets fully allocated in a ballot and almost all further tickets selling out within seconds / minutes of being released on public sale.
It turns out that the vast swathes of empty seats are those in sections that were not available for sale but, rather, are allocated to Olympic dignataries, officials, other athletes and corporate sponsors. Each event has to allocate a minimum of 25% of available tickets for this purpose with the "blue ribbon" events having to allocate 50% of tickets for this (i.e. such events as the Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony and men's 100m final).
Apparently, the morning after the Opening Ceremony (which goes on into the wee small hours in after-parties attended by the various delegations and officials), those who get these free tickets are often not in attendance as they are still in bed. Rather sad given the really strong demand for tickets from the public - especially for events such as swimming and gymnastics where the stadia has limited capacity.