UK: OLYMPICS: The head of the British Olympic Association believes the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should completely overhaul its ticketing policy to put an end once and for all the sight of empty seats in venues

Record ID: 330984

  • Title: UK: OLYMPICS: The head of the British Olympic Association believes the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should completely overhaul its ticketing policy to put an end once and for all the sight of empty seats in venues
  • Date: 31st July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (JULY 31, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) , ANDY HUNT, TEAM GB CHEF DE MISSION, SAYING: "I think everyone knows if you use social media extensively, you have to accept you get bad as well as good, but sometimes bad is wholly unacceptable as we experienced last night and that is being dealt with by the relevant authorities."
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADHISVBXR3UFIZW73JJ70J8W2G
  • Story Text: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should revamp the way tickets are allocated to put an end to Games' plagued by empty seats in venues, the British Olympic Association (BOA) said on Tuesday (July 31).
    It follows the furore in London of swathes of unused seats, even for popular events, while the general public have been unable to get hold of tickets.

    "The IOC have now got to take a lead and make sure the investment is in place for state of the art Olympic ticketing programme that can then be improved and rolled forward from Games to Games," the head of the BOA, Chris Moynihan, told reporters.
    London 2012 organisers on Monday (July 30) announced they would release seats allocated for media and delegations where they were able to but the BOA stressed that did not address the underlying problem which raises its head at every Games.
    The sight of rows of empty seating is particularly galling for Games organisers who had promised to avoid the situation that occurred in Beijing four years ago when the host nation was forced to bus in spectators to fill empty spaces.
    The BOA will raise this issue, which they said would need massive investment far exceeding 100 or 200 million pounds, at a debriefing session with the IOC at the end of the Games.
    Meantime Moynihan said he was happy with Team GB's current medal tally, despite some disappointments in swimming, diving and the men's road race.

    "We are doing absolutely fine as a team," he said.

    "We need to be patient and you will see that the medals and the gold medal performances will follow, so I am very comfortable about where we are."
    Britain currently have four medals, boosted by Monday night's bronze in the men's gymnastics team event.
    The BOA said rowing and cycling events in the velodrome later this week should help boost the tally.
    Team GB's target is to win more medals than the 47 they won in Beijing.
    Team GB Chef de Mission, Andy Hunt, said police were now investigating offensive tweets sent to British diver Tom Daley who had his medal hopes dashed in the synchronised diving on Monday night.
    Team GB athletes are allowed to tweet but are encouraged to use social media sensibly.
    Hunt said Daley was not going to let the offensive tweets upset his focus but he warned that using social media was a two-way street and athletes should be aware of the dangers.

    "I think everyone knows if you use social media extensively, you have to accept you get bad as well as good," Hunt said.

    "But sometimes bad is wholly unacceptable as we experienced last night and that is being dealt with by the relevant authorities."
    Dubbed the 'Twitter Games', social media have already claimed two scalps in London.
    A Greek and a Swiss athlete were expelled from the Games after posting offensive tweets.

    "Do you know what? I am not surprised. We always said that, two years ago, that this is going to be the Twitter Games," Hunt said.
    American athletes have started a Twitter campaign in protest at strict sponsorship rules and many athletes are using social media to communicate with fans.
    Some of the more popular Team GB members are being bombarded with tweets, including Daley, who is getting around 50,000 messages a day.
    Hunt said it has changed the face of reporting the Games.

    "There is going to need to be further work going into the next Games to think about the consequences of this more broadly.

    "But right now I am confident in what we are doing in terms of advise, education, policy around this and working very closely with all the team leaders and coaches," he added.
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