Troops, students to fill empty seats at Olympics

Sun Jul 29th 2012

Organizing chief Sebastian Coe says troops and local students will be given tickets to fill empty seats at Olympic venues.

There has been widespread criticism after blocks of prime seats went unused Saturday, largely by Olympic and sports officials. Coe, head of the London organizers, predicts this will be sorted out as the games go forward.

He declines to blame Olympic sponsors, whom he had promised to "name and shame" if they did not use their ticket allocations. Coe says it is normal at the Olympics for national team officials to be too busy to attend events in the opening days.

Coe's organizing team has long promised to fill venues, avoiding the problem of empty seats at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.