Olympics: Coe Appeals For Calm In Seats Row

London 2012 chief Lord Coe has insisted Olympic venues are "stuffed" with sports fans - despite hundreds of seats being left empty.

Large areas of seating were left vacant during swimming, gymnastics, and tennis events on Saturday and again this morning, sparking angry protests.

It has emerged many seats had been allocated to the so-called 'Olympic family', which includes officials, sports federations and journalists.

To help tackle the problem Games organisers Locog have again turned to servicemen and women, as they did when private security firm G4S failed to supply enough guards.

This time they have been asked to step into the breach by watching sporting events and filling seats during their rest periods.

Lord Coe has urged that the seating row be kept in perspective, saying it was early days and improvements would be made.

He added: "We take it seriously. I don't want to see swathes of those seats empty and that's why we will make sure, where we possibly can, people are in those seats when they are not used."

The head of the British Olympic Association Lord Moynihan has called for a 30-minute rule on ticketing so that people who fail to turn up on time lose their seats.

"We need every seat filled," he said. "We owe it to the team, we owe it to British sports fans the length and breadth of the country."

The seating row broke out on Saturday after large gaps were visible in the crowds at venues including the Aquatics Centre and gymnastics arena.

In contrast, huge crowds lined the streets, where tickets were not required, to watch Team GB in the men's cycling road race.

A spokesman for Locog said the majority of the empty seats were thought to belong to accredited groups such as governing bodies and the media.

He added that some tickets remained unsold and urged members of the public to check online for availability.

"Many of our venues were packed to the rafters today. Where there are empty seats, we will look at who should have been sitting in the seats, and why they did not attend," he said.

"Early indications are that the empty seats are in accredited seating areas, but this is day one, and our end of day review will provide a fuller picture of attendance levels across all our venues."

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said the empty seats were "very disappointing" and suggested they could be offered to members of the public.

He said a system had been introduced for London 2012 similar to the one used at Wimbledon, where people coming out of the stadium handed on their tickets so the seats could be made available to other people.

"So we are trying a lot of innovations, it's a shame this happened, but we are going to do everything we can to make sure we fill up these stadia," he added.

Gaps in the seating were also visible at the handball, volleyball, badminton and basketball arenas.

The cheaper seats higher in the stands were mostly full but those lower down, which are generally more expensive, were not filled.

One basketball spectator, Jane Smith, from London, said: "It's very disappointing to see this, particularly as we all tried so hard to get our tickets. It doesn't help the atmosphere at all."

Related Stories