BackBuzzing London fails to fill empty stands
Critics and fans are outraged with the diffidence of members and affiliates who skipped events
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London: Aspate of tweets on Tuesday by Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Olympics Organizing Committee (Locog), bespoke his relief—as also his anxiety.
Coe sent out five tweets within two hours, proclaiming “packed houses" for swimming, water polo, basketball, hockey and handball. Though “packed" was a tad hyperbolic, on television it did appear that attendance at these venues had improved.
But this was not quite nearly the case at some other venues. For instance, the badminton hall at Wembley Park—where India’s P. Kashyapbeat his higher-ranked Vietnamese rival Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 21-14 Thursday morning—had plenty of unoccupied seats.
Elsewhere at Lord’s, where the archery events are being held, the stands were almost half-empty; despite the fairly large support for Indian archers. That Jayanta Talukdar and Chekrovolu Swuro were knocked out in the first round despite such support is, of course, a different story.
Coe and his cohorts in the Lohoc had been under fire for disregarding genuine fans who had been shooed away from several venues, ostensibly because the tickets had been sold out while TV pictures showed quite the opposite. In all fairness, spectatorship usually improves as events reach the final stages. The start of track and field disciplines should also see a surge of interest in fans.
Nevertheless, so far it has been disappointing—and controversial. So much so that getting “bums on seats" has become a raging issue with fans and critics forcing even Prime Minister David Cameron—who travelled by the tube to Olympic Park one day in a shrewd political gesture to win mass approval—to intervene.
“Empty stands are an embarrassment," said Cameron, adding that soldiers and others involved in security would be made to occupy seats when an event was in progress. This only added to the woes of Coe and Locog, who had promised massive spectator support before the Games began.
The embarrassment for Lohoc is twofold. The Olympics are touted as the greatest show on Earth, and empty seats do it no credit. While the financial loss may be meagre in the context of the overall cost, the public relations damage can be incalculable.
Most Olympics leave the host country in a financial mess. Barring the Los Angeles Games of 1984, none have made a profit. The London Games’s original budget of £2.5 billion had to be scaled up to £10 billion.
This is unlikely to be recovered, and the last thing that the British government would want is for its image to be dented—either with its own populace or the world at large. The easiest way for this to happen is for fans to feel disregarded.
The crux of the matter is why tickets should not be available when the stands are so blatantly empty.
Organizational snafus are inevitable in such situations. Those apart, there are some glitches that could have been anticipated in advance. For instance, tickets are not on sale at the venue and can only be bought online. This makes it virtually impossible for the casual visitor to get into an event. But what has got the lay fan and critic alike outraged is the diffidence of members of the so-called Olympic family to utilize their tickets. The family comprises of members of the IOC and its affiliates, which includes the Olympic federations of various countries and their affiliates and is believed to number in tens of thousands.
Members of this family are entitled to seats at any venue, but have been largely conspicuous by their absence. When grilled on this a few days back, Coe came up with an explanation that was either puerile or showed up his helplessness. “…they are trying to figure out what their day looks like, where they are going to be asked to go to, frankly working out how you divide your time," he said.
Some analysts saw in this an admission that the family was here for more than just watching the Games. Writing in the London Evening Standard, analyst Mihir Bose observed, “...sport is not the only thing on the minds of the (Olympics) family. Representatives of nine cities from around the world are in town trying to woo the family members in their attempt to secure either the 2020 Olympics or the 2018 Olympic Youth Games... This means many meetings in hotels all over London. Given that, can you blame a member of the family if they forget they have a ticket to see Rebecca Adlington swim?"
While this may not be the perfect explanation for the empty seats as yet, it throws up another fascinating aspect of an Olympic nonetheless: of the games beyond the Games.
Ayaz Memon writes a fortnightly column in Mint, Beyond Boundaries.
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