Rio 2016 bosses "have defended their ticketing policies despite swathes of empty seats" at many of the Olympic venues being visible to audiences around the world, according to Matt Slater of the PA. Rio 2016 Ticketing Dir Donovan Ferreti said that 78% of the 7.5 million tickets available for the Games "have now gone, with nearly half a million tickets sold for Monday's busy day of action." Ferreti said that South Americans are "notoriously late buyers -- with lots of tickets being bought at the last minute in Argentina, Brazil and Chile" -- and said that many of the sessions "were double-headers, with fans choosing to watch only one half." Rio 2016 spokesperson Mario Andrada "admitted TV pictures of barely half-full venues were a 'problem'" and said that the organizing committee was "trying to fix it." Andrada: "Some of the events have massive crowds and massive atmosphere but we have to fix other problems and we're not happy until we have." Andrada said that Rio 2016 "was also trying to get sponsors and other VIPs to hand over unused tickets so local children from disadvantaged areas could get to see the action," but he admitted "this was not easy given the often short notice and the fact these children are at school." Vacant seats, however, are not Rio 2016's "only ticketing problem, as local police have started to crack down on touts." Over the weekend, 10 Brazilians from São Paulo were arrested "for trying to sell tickets for the opening ceremony bought with cloned credit cards," while Andrada said that 40 touts were arrested outside the Olympic Park on Monday. There are also local reports that two employees of a British-based ticketing agency "were detained in Rio on Monday, with 1,000 tickets confiscated" (PA, 8/8). REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported organizers admitted that "only Friday's Opening Ceremony has so far sold out." Demand for tickets is running at 82%, "considerably below London four years ago even though they are roughly half the price." Not even Brazil's men's football team in its first match at the Games "has attracted a capacity crowd" and on Sunday the women's sevens tournament "was played in front of at best half-filled 15,000-seater Deodoro stadium while only a few thousand spectators watched the women's cycling road race." Andrada said, "We have sold 82 percent of the tickets we have available, 5 million tickets. We still have 1.1 million tickets to sell." Organizers, however, said that they had "surpassed their financial target from sales" by 5% (REUTERS, 8/7).
SAFETY ISSUE: In London, Charles Sale reported "serious concern" about the safety of the temporary seats at the Olympic Stadium, where the track and field program starts on Friday, "has been expressed by Games officials." Over 14,000 extra seats have been installed at the Engenhao venue, home of Rio football team Botafogo, "to take the capacity up to 60,000 for the Olympics." But the "big temporary structure has not been fully stress-tested with a crowd in place ahead of 10 days of athletics." A Rio 2016 spokesperson said that "they were fully confident about the Olympic Stadium seating" -- even without a full capacity test event -- because the same construction team had provided "even bigger temporary seating structures for the 2014 World Cup" (
DAILY MAIL, 8/7).
