# Empty seats!



## Custard Cream (28 July 2012)

Look at all those empty seats!


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## JCWHITE (28 July 2012)

Yes,just thought the same thing!


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## 4x4 (28 July 2012)

They were probably the AA seats which were advertised for £2012 each during the week!


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## georgiegirl (28 July 2012)

Gutting to see so many empty seats - have been searching for olympic equestrian tickets for ages with no luck!


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## Kat (28 July 2012)

Gutted, would have loved to have been there but couldn't get tickets for anything.


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## TarrSteps (28 July 2012)

Still people coming in, though. I suspect a lot of people struggled a bit to get there this morning or simply decided not to go first thing today.  It's noticeably filling up now.

Also, there will be comp and assigned seats that people will not always be in for the whole show.


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## stroppymare153 (28 July 2012)

they probably were full, just gone home cos they couldn't stomach the awful background music


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## mandwhy (28 July 2012)

I thought that too, they keep saying 'seats are filling up now' jeez don't hurry will you haha!


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## Custard Cream (28 July 2012)

Someone needs to shut the annoying children up in the background. I'll be seriously unimpressed if there is a crying baby when I'm there.


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## humblepie (28 July 2012)

Haven't seen the dressage yet, only just got link working (poor person without Sky) but at the start of the cyling road race huge crowds but one grandstand empty - persumably VIPS who will arrive just for the last bit not the full 5 hours.


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## jaquelin (28 July 2012)

Still looks bad, whatever the reason, ESP since so little public availability. I suspect the empties mainly belong to corporate sponsors & block-booked tour operators who could not then shift them


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## LizzieJ (28 July 2012)

There are loads of people walking the course and watching on the various big screens and the queues for food/water are about an hour long...


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## philamena (28 July 2012)

Seb Coe has said he'll name and shame sponsors who let seats go to waste...


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## jaquelin (28 July 2012)

I hope he does!

Re queuing for food, etc, this might explain random empty seats, but blocks of empty seats?


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## LizzieJ (28 July 2012)

The seats around me are empty but they haven't been all the time, there really are a lot of people who aren't in the arena, you can't move in the food area!


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## LizzieJ (28 July 2012)

The blocks that I could see empty opposite me this morning have people in now, I am literally surrounded by empty seats now but that hasnt been the case all day. There are a lot of people leaving now though...


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## jaquelin (28 July 2012)

It looks like this is going to be an issue. Blocks of empty seats at aquatic & athletic venues too, & the pattern is that general public seats & cheap seats are filled & pricey seats empty. It looks really bad & makes it look like Olympics is for the rich & connected, who cannot then be bothered to show up!


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## Jo_x (28 July 2012)

yes they were saying earlier that the gymnastics was almost impossible to get tickets for but there were tonnes of empty seats there!


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## galaxy (28 July 2012)

1 block was for participants etc but apart from that all the seats had people in at some point from what I saw. There was always LOADS of people outside walking the course etc.


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## Sleighfarer (28 July 2012)

Custard Cream said:



			Someone needs to shut the annoying children up in the background. I'll be seriously unimpressed if there is a crying baby when I'm there.
		
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You think there will be just the one?


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## Honeylight (28 July 2012)

What a shame, I knew lots of people who tried to get them with no luck. People who would really have benefited from going. It is a sad sign of the times all this corporate stuff; people at the races who have no interest in it & just there for a jolly, but then they do not prevent enthusiasts going like here.


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## Miss L Toe (28 July 2012)

Loads of empty seats at the ladies tennis, can't believe nobody wanted to watch.
Not impressed by the officials outfits, smart chinos would have been nice, rather than some  sort of shell suit bottom, ball-boys are a bit standout in red against the Wimbledon purple backdrop.


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## galaxy (28 July 2012)

There REALLY wasn't loads of empty seats....  Must just have been how it looked on the tele.  the riders/team block was right in the middle.


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## philamena (28 July 2012)

From the BBC: Locog orders urgent investigation. Olympic family & sponsors not using their seats...

It's been a prob in various venues. It did look quite bad at Greenwhich from TV pics but can understand that for the dressage phase people will take quite a lot of time away to explore elsewhere / need to wait forever for food!


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## galaxy (28 July 2012)

philamena said:



			From the BBC: Locog orders urgent investigation. Olympic family & sponsors not using their seats...
		
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Good! If that is the case, then surely all they have to do is check their records?  They scanned the bar code of every ticket.  Surely that would tell them how many seats were unused?


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## teapot (28 July 2012)

Thing is as well, think how many tickets are given to media and journalists? If just one person gets given 5 different events to cover which may or may not clash, there's no way they'd get 100% capacity.

I thought Greenwich looked packed in parts, less so in others. But as Galaxy says, if people were off walking the course, getting food etc, it will look emptier than normal. Plus dressage is such a personal thing and people may have picked and chosen who they were going to watch. I doubt tuesday will look as empty (I'll take pics  )


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## teapot (28 July 2012)

Friend has just text me to say that the same food issues are happening at Wembley


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## LJLazonby (28 July 2012)

I  am fortunate enough to have sky HD+ and though I don't pretend to understand it I can work it,which means I can record everything and then watch it at my leisure going backwards/forwards etc on a whim. Believe me there were loads of empty seats-some of the same seats empty for the whole day .


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## LizzieJ (28 July 2012)

The people behind me (6 of them) were only sat there for 4 horses. A lot of people were pretty well settled in front of big screens too and you couldn't get in without a ticket.


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## Bigbenji (28 July 2012)

Have to say the venue is stunning, staff were lovely. Yes there were a few too many empty seats 

The food I didn't bother with as way OTT price wise and didn't look worth the wait.

The major issue was the water. Make you throw yours away saying no problem to fill the bottles again when your in there but the wait was horrendous and nowhere near enough 'fountains' eg one dribbly tap. Makes you wonder if this was so you had to buy a bottle . . .

Apart from the water issue  the day was stunning. Loved Buzz and as for Mary, fab test. That woman is a legend.


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## ihatework (28 July 2012)

The water issue was bad wasn't it. They made it sound like water would be readily available for free but it wasn't. We ended up just buying bottles after queuing for yonks and missed the first 3 tests because of it


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## ihatework (28 July 2012)

And there were plenty of empty seats all day


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## ghostie (28 July 2012)

ihatework said:



			The water issue was bad wasn't it. They made it sound like water would be readily available for free but it wasn't. We ended up just buying bottles after queuing for yonks and missed the first 3 tests because of it
		
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according to the army guys the water in the toilets is drinking water so we just filled up there without queuing 

There were lots of empty seats all day long - some areas didn't seem to have been sold.  Interestingly a whole load went up for sale late last night and early this morning for today, so I wouldn't be surprised if the same didn't happen again for other events.


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## yorks (28 July 2012)

we decided the empty seats were for press at the top (all that plastic) and hepers and officials at the bottom. We thought it might all fill up tomorrow when Zara goes. I hope she does well. I think she has more pressure than most riders with all the press attention


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## teapot (28 July 2012)

Well a LOAD of tickets across all sports were released about 90mins ago...


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## vineyridge (28 July 2012)

From what I understand they only gave two tickets to each athlete.  I know the American team was begging for access to extra tickets for family and sponsors yesterday.


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## Liostro (29 July 2012)

how do you view when new tickets are released?


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## fuzz (29 July 2012)

I'm a snowboard athlete and my governing body sent out an email on Thursday offering tickets stating: "As a member of the Olympic Family BSS has been fortunate enough to be offered a variety of tickets that sponsors and other major supporters of sport have not thus far taken up  these have not been part of the public ballot but are tickets that were set aside by LOCOG for supporters of the Olympic family". There were tickets included for the dressage today although we did have to buy them for their original cost price. I think most of the empty seats have been for sponsors and potential future olympic athletes (because of their inspire a generation theme) which haven't been taken up.

On that note though don't think I'm defending it, I don't think its fair how its all been dealt with. I got offered a ticket for the handball semi-finals through their athlete ticket swap programme, which is a sport I know nothing about and I'm not all that interested in seeing it. I couldn't go so I returned the ticket which I hope has been offered up to the public as I'm sure there are people who wanted to see it that didn't get tickets. I don't believe its fair that people who want to see their favourite sport aren't getting the chance because sponsors and sport governing bodies got such a large amount of the tickets and then haven't used them all.


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## Kittykins (29 July 2012)

It is turning into a bit of an Olympyshambles, isn't it? Considering that the public, having funded the games to the tune of billions through our taxes, are far and away the biggest sponsors...  

I've been quite supportive of the games, and am volunteering on the cross country tomorrow, but some of the corporatism - particularly this issue of not being able to take food into venues but having to buy on site - leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. No pun intended.


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## Honey08 (29 July 2012)

The company I work for (huge) is sponsoring the olympics, and has had competitions going on for months to win tickets - often with very little take up.  I would imagine all the big wigs at the top got given hoards of tickets, and there are probably people sitting at home going "oh I'm not going to that, its outside and the forecast isn't good...!"


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## galaxy (29 July 2012)

The ticketing issue is go to rumble on for a while isn't it.

You can take food in Kittykins and I strongly recommend that people do! We took a reasonable sized packed lunch yesterday which security saw and were totally happy with. I think them stating 'no picnic hampers' has made people think that means no food at all.


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## TarrSteps (29 July 2012)

Kittykins said:



			It is turning into a bit of an Olympyshambles, isn't it? Considering that the public, having funded the games to the tune of billions through our taxes, are far and away the biggest sponsors...  

I've been quite supportive of the games, and am volunteering on the cross country tomorrow, but some of the corporatism - particularly this issue of not being able to take food into venues but having to buy on site - leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. No pun intended.
		
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Unfortunately, a lot of these problems are hardly particular to London.  While I'm sure LOGOC should shoulder a large part of the blame, the conditions about sponsors etc are set by the IOC and non-negotiable.  Every time I hear the phrase "the Olympic family" I want to scream 

(From what I understand, China's solution was to simply have people on hand to fill empty seats if necessary.  Harder to do here and even more so with the security demands.)

It doesn't excuse anyone, least of all LOGOC, but I do think people are getting into a real "blame GB" mindset without realising that hosting the Olympics is rife with these sorts of problems.


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## Kittykins (29 July 2012)

TarrSteps said:



			Unfortunately, a lot of these problems are hardly particular to London.  While I'm sure LOGOC should shoulder a large part of the blame, the conditions about sponsors etc are set by the IOC and non-negotiable.  Every time I hear the phrase "the Olympic family" I want to scream .
		
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Point taken, although the ticketing process itself has hardly made friends of the general public. 

On the food side, glad to hear that you can get food in. We were told "one piece of fruit and a granola bar ONLY", which seems a little hard seeing as we'll be working a whole day and they're having problems with getting our packed lunches to us due to health and safety legislation!


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## galaxy (29 July 2012)

Wow! That's harsh! For myself and oh I took 2 sandwiches, 2 wraps. Crisps, pork pies, and a bag of sweets! Security saw and didn't care!


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## Penny Less (29 July 2012)

Most empty seats are in huge blocks, If people were just off getting food, etc, there would still be some seats occupied. What a waste, I hope they all had to pay for the seats and didnt just get given them because they were sponsors etc


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## philamena (29 July 2012)

BBC Q&A on the empty seats... 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19037625


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## Dovorian (29 July 2012)

Livid!   We would love to have had tickets and would definately not run away when it rained.

As armchair critics by default..... so much 'padding' under saddles, do they not fit? Some riders looked like the Princess on the Pea.....

Toppers, is there a 'pool' as many do not look quite right? Andrew Nicholson must have swopped with the young chap from Russia or was it Belarus?

Just grouchy as could not get a ticket I guess!


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## MagicMelon (29 July 2012)

Dovorian said:



			Livid!   We would love to have had tickets and would definately not run away when it rained.

As armchair critics by default..... so much 'padding' under saddles, do they not fit? Some riders looked like the Princess on the Pea.....
		
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I think proper equestrian folk (who IMO are the ones who deserved the tickets) wouldn't run off at the sight of rain to be honest.  Eventers (and spectators) are hardly fair weather folk!  The seating does look ridiculous.  I doubt its just because some people are elsewhere getting food etc. as its big blocks of empty seating. What a waste!  And yes, I didnt get tickets for the XC or eventing SJ like I'd wanted so am bitter, although TBH Id hate to have been in London with the pricey accomodation and bad traffic etc. 

With regard to the padding under saddles, I think its just because these horses are generally sensitive / sharp types as they have to be to event. My horse (not exactly Olympic standard however!) is sensitive and is more relaxed with wool under the seat part even though his saddle fits well.


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## MyBoyChe (29 July 2012)

MagicMelon,I agree, "Proper" horsey types would not be deterred by the weather and would be prepared to sit there through whatever gets thrown at us!  I think that something like the 3DE dressage phase is difficult for the general public to appreciate, it is after all 80ish sportsman doing exactly the same thing, one at a time and with no room for manouevre!  You do really need to appreciate what you are seeing and I cant believe anyone not interested in the sport, or a family with young children are going to want to sit still for the best part of a day watching it!  In this instance surely it would have been more prudent to sell the tickets to those who especially wanted to be there?


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## Maddie2412 (29 July 2012)

I confess I was there and we left early *blush*!!! Even my pants and bra were soaked even with waterproofs and umbrella and i am already pretty ill, I have a big meeting tomorrow morning and frankly can't risk getting seriously ill but I got a couple of hours in and the site was amazing.

my complaints: 
1)we thought of going to get a warm mean (after we finished the granola bar we told we were alowed in (turns out u can actually take a picic and after all the food ran out!), HOWEVER there is no re-admission to the grounds even with a valid ticket so that wasn't possible even for 30 mins

2)they dont 'scan out' your tickets so there is no easy re-allocation system a la wimbledon style. Made it feel like such a waste as there was no way of me passing on my ticket to anyone. 

despite all this what an amazing atmosphere (though guilty that its so empty now) and well done to team GB especially Tina who showed us what shes made of!!


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## ChiffChaff (30 July 2012)

Oh Maddie it was SOOOO WET wasn't it?? I didn't take any waterproofs or an umbrella - I took suncream!!!! In the 5 minutes it took Tina to do her test I was soaked to the bone. We retreated and just stood on the stairs until the rain lightened up, considered leaving but started to dry off and the (very helpful) volunteers were handing out bin bags to make rain macs out of.  Not very green I know, but it was that or go home! 

There was a MASSIVE chunk of empty seating, presumably reserved, and even discounting that and considering anyone out on the xc or getting food, the arena (minus the empty block) was never full to capacity, but was pretty much full.  

Incredibly frustrating. As was the water issue, and the food wasn't great, and no readmission was annoying...but apart from that, (and being made very aware of my mortality sitting on a mainly metal structure in a park whilst lightning flashed above!) It was fantastic! 

x


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## CalllyH (30 July 2012)

I went on Saturday and if you had put everyone that was in the park in their seats it would have been near enough full apart from the block behind the commentators which I'm presuming was left clear for that reason.
People were coming and going and watching seven hours of dressage straight is to be honest a bit boring so people were walking round the course, getting food, watching the horses come out the arena etc
There were twenty thousand there Saturday and 50 000 there today so you can't say they have held a lot of tickets back for eventing.


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## NR99 (30 July 2012)

Hi

We were there yesterday, had a fab time and would love to repeat the experience.  We braved the rain from start to finish including the thunderstorm, if Tina can do it so can we.  

Our journey was smooth in and out despite a train being cancelled whilst we were on it, the helpers were all fantastic as were the service men and women who seemed generally happy to help. I think you take from it what you want, we had a fab time. 

Yes there were many people there who had no idea about dressage, one American lady commented on a flying change 'oops don't know what that was but it certainly isn't a move they use in dressage'. I let her know it was and that there were 4 in the test and she was grateful for the explanation.  I asked her why she had chosen dressage and she said the whole eventing thing was good value for money and you could come for the day, rather than just a session as with many other sports.  She also said that they had been to the UK before and knew Greenwich Park to be beautiful.  I disagree with comments that it should only be for the proper horse fans - why, don't we want our sport opened up to everyone, the Olympics is the perfect stage?

I am hoping as MiniNR is back from her trip to Equador to be able to surprise her with Olympic tickets so I am refreshing the ticketing page regularly.  If you are going don't let comments put you off, on the second day there was plenty of food, water and the queues were not too bad.  

Go enjoy, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity


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## ChiffChaff (30 July 2012)

The x country looks packed!! Really nice to see x


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