News organisations and journalists have been reporting that the Olympics are sold out, but thousands of seats remain empty at many events.
Considering how many Beijing locals (and tourists, for that matter) would love to attend the Olympics, the ticketing allocation process is clearly inefficient if so many seats are empty at popular events like beach volleyball.
I recorded a short video to show you what the stadiums look like from a spectator’s perspective:
..oh yeah, and I included a call for London’s 2012 Olympic Organisers to allocate resources to making sure seats are almost never empty.
I’ve got some smart friends and readers. What do you guys have in mind? What technologies could be used to make sure thousands of seats don’t go empty at London’s games?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Gavin Heaton // Aug 11, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I think the most innovative piece of Olympic tech this year was the bogus ticketing website that fleeced unsuspecting sports fans from around the world. Maybe London should chat with those guys … they seemed to have it all together!
2 Tim Longhurst // Aug 11, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The light in that video’s not great, but I cut it up in iMovie really quick and just got it up there… There are lots of jump cuts, which I don’t mind. I’d be interested in what people think of the video, actually… Should I do more like this? Thanks
3 Tim Longhurst // Aug 11, 2008 at 5:43 pm
@Gavin Haha! You’re right… Those bogus websites must have been very convincing. Yesterday I met two people who were fleeced – they had “bought two tickets to the rowing” via a bogus site. Well guess what? I was able to organise two REAL tickets to the same event thanks to some New Zealand fans that I’d met. I bought the kiwis beer and ice creams as thank you, and the Aussies ended up with the tickets for free! Not a bad result.
4 老外 // Aug 11, 2008 at 11:23 pm
commentators on empty seats seemed to forgotten how difficult it was to get a visa
5 Tim Longhurst // Aug 12, 2008 at 12:24 am
@老外 You’re right – Visas were difficult to get… So, are you suggesting the seats are empty (in part) because the Chinese government blocked the visa applications of ticket holders?
6 老外 // Aug 12, 2008 at 10:37 am
not blocked but rather frustrated their attempts. I now some from Oz that gave up because visas would not be issued to people intending to use private accommodation. So claims by the local organisers that non-attendance by OS corporates is a insult should be held in balance against the mid-april tightening of visa policy
7 Amer Hasan // Aug 13, 2008 at 12:32 am
tickets for almost ALL events are being sold for face value on official website cosport.com for residents of US Australia and others.
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