Olympic Tickets (1)

Meeting:

MQT on 2012-09-19

Session date:

September 19, 2012

Reference:

2012/2373

Question By:

Stephen Knight

Organisation:

Liberal Democrats

Asked Of:

The Mayor

Question

In a press release issued on the 23 August 2008 you stated: 'Whilst I have witnessed some fantastic sport over the last couple of days I could not help but notice a significant number of empty seats. We must avoid that in London. It's a waste. The chance to watch the world's greatest athletes performing at their very best is a real privilege. They have a right to expect a capacity crowd.' Despite this criticism of the Beijing Games, there were thousands of unused seats during the opening week of the 2012 Games in London. Do you believe that every possible step was taken in advance to minimise the number of empty seats in areas reserved for members of the 'Olympic family'?

Answer

Answer for Olympic Tickets (1)

Answered By:

The Mayor

Date:

Monday, 24th September 2012

LOCOG worked hard to minimise empty seats in advance through its ticketing strategy which included having tickets available at a range of prices, pay-your-age tickets for young people and seniors and sales that continued as venue seating plans were finalised and tickets returned.

Earlier this year, LOCOG also put in place its Key Seats programme. This programme enabled young people from London schools and colleges to be on the Olympic Park and then filled unoccupied seats. In addition, the Organising Committee had in place a Wimbledon-style 'resale' system for Olympic Park venues with team sport double-headers (hockey, basketball, water polo and handball) where people might leave after their team has played. These seats were then sold to people already in the Park for £5 (adult) and £1 (child).

At the Games, LOCOG also released seats to the public by reducing the size of accredited areas, upgrading ticketed spectators, and offering empty seats to troops and volunteers who had finished their shifts.

The atmosphere in the venues was terrific, with most venues packed to the rafters with enthusiastic sports fans.