KARACHI: Tens of thousands of ticket-holders are not showing up to Olympic events, admitted organizers.
Currently, the average no-show figure in London Olympic events is nearly 60,000.
Many of the non-attendees are VIPs, including members of International Olympic Committee (IOC), the National Olympic Committees (NOC) and heads of state from the 204 participating countries, who were given tickets by sponsors, including for sold-out events such as swimming and gymnastics finals.
The astonishing figures may infuriate British sports fans, thousands of whom are still trying to get tickets online. Fans complain that the tickets are unavailable despite the website’s claim.
Tom Watson, a member of the culture, media and sport selection committee said, “This is a sporting tragedy. There are a lot of parents who have missed the once in a lifetime dream of taking their kids to the Olympics.”
“It adds to a sense that the games are inaccessible to ordinary people. It's just very sad,” he added.
The organizers are however facing a huge challenge of getting back the unwanted tickets from overseas NOCs, officials and dignitaries so that they can be resold to the public.
Organisers say they are taking back up to 3,800 tickets every day from NOCs and reselling them to the public.
But, over the weekend, “just 86 per cent of seats were filled when, out of 414,000 tickets sold, a staggering 58,000 seatholders never arrived.”
Many of the tickets are going on sale only hours before the events, making it difficult for anyone outside London to attend at such short notice.
Simon Danczuk, the MP for Rochdale said, “We were promised these Games would be inclusive and reach out to all corners of the UK. Yet the reality is those who will benefit from the release of further tickets are Londoners. People in the North who were unable to get tickets first time round will feel hard done by.”
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