Some IOC members were “prevented from attending" the first two nights of
track and field action because of "sensitivity about the empty seats in
accredited areas,” according to Jacquelin Magnay of the London
TELEGRAPH. IOC Olympic Games Exec Dir Gilbert Felli said that it had
“relinquished some space so that it could be redistributed to the
public, yet the VIP seating area still had scores of empty seats.” LOCOG
said that the accredited seating areas “across all venues on Saturday
were 98 per cent full, while overall there were 719,000 spectators
representing 92 per cent of all tickets sold.” LOCOG CEO Paul Deighton
said that some empty seats in the stadium “were ‘seat kills’ because of
poor visibility or are designated photographer spots.” He said that the
sponsors were “filling all of their seats” (TELEGRAPH, 8/6).
THE FINAL SWIM: YAHOO SPORTS’ Martin Rogers noted
tickets for the men’s 4x100m medley relay, the final race in Michael
Phelps' Olympic career, were the "hottest seat" of the Games so far and
Saturday were “changing hands on the black market for the incredible
price of nearly $10,000.” One ticket scalper said, "It is all because of
Phelps. We have even started quoting prices in American dollars because
all the people interested are Americans who want to see him one more
time." The only available tickets prior to Saturday’s race were “mainly
for the highest-priced level, hence the drastically inflated asking
price from scalpers.” When the tickets were released, the top ticket
“sold for $704, with other levels at $461, $289, $149 and $78.” Another
ticket scalper said, "Normally, I make my money by paying face value
for tickets from people who don't want them anymore. This is a unique
event. I am paying way, way above face” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 8/4).
TECH SAVVY: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Speri, Orwall
& Bryan-Low noted fan Adam Naisbitt “ended up becoming a martyr for
one of this city's most aggrieved demographics: the thousands who've
been unable to buy tickets for the Games.” But “unlike most, Naisbitt, a
tech entreprener, had the know-how to come up with a plan.” He designed
a program “to automatically send his girlfriend a text when gymnastics
tickets became available on the official website.” It worked “so well
that he decided to share his services with the public and developed a
‘spider,’ a device that monitors the site for ticket updates every three
minutes, notifying Twitter followers when they become available.”
Naisbitt's Twitter handle, @2012TicketAlert,
“soon had more than 7,500 followers -- all of whom were getting a time
advantage in the race for tickets.” But his spider handle on Thursday
“was blocked and stopped working.” Official LOCOG ticketing partner
Ticketmaster Friday said that Naisbitt has “been blocked, but stressed
that he wasn't targeted.” The company said that it was a "consequence of
its continuing efforts to track unusual activity from individual
Internet addresses” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/4).
In London, Victoria Ward noted when Ticketmaster established Naisbitt’s
handle “was legitimate, it was immediately reinstalled.” The Twitter
alert now has over 24,000 followers (TELEGRAPH, 8/6).