mr.x
August 18th, 2008, 08:35 PM
Vanoc to come up with a cure for Empty Seat Syndrome
Vancouver's Olympic committee plans to sell every ticket for 2010 events
Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, August 18, 2008
BEIJING - When International Olympic Committee members go to the gold medal hockey game in Vancouver in 2010, they'll be sitting in the upper bowl of GM Place, a long ways away from the front rows that will be sold to John Q. Public.
And when the media go to write on the Games, they'll find far fewer desks in the prime spots of the venues, replaced with more seats for the paying public.
That's because the Vancouver Organizing Committee is determined to find more seats to sell in order to solve a historic illness that has afflicted the Games - Empty Seat Syndrome.
Coupled with one of the most aggressive and technologically advanced anti-scalping plans ever developed, Vanoc intends to make sure every seat at the 2010 Games is filled - and filled with authentic ticket holders.
Empty seats have been a problem at most Olympic Games, even though tickets have often been sold out. Often it is because people who bought tickets to see an athlete or team lost interest if that person or team got knocked out of competition.
At the Turin Winter Games two years ago, Vanoc executive vice-president Dave Cobb pledged to solve the problem in 2010 by bringing in technology that would allow unused tickets to be recycled to last-minute customers.
He's also warned National Olympic Committees that if they are caught illegally supplying preferred-access tickets to ticket brokers - a traditional source of revenue for some committees - they risk having every ticket sold to them to cancelled through bar-code technology.
On Monday, Cobb said the problem of getting tickets into the hands of the public appears to be just as severe in Beijing, where there is high demand for some events but seats still go empty.
But he's also taking on the IOC and the press for a share of the best areas in the house, often at finish lines or in prime viewing spots. To paying customers on the other side of the venue, they look enticing but empty and unused except for the best events.
Cobb was in the Water Cube National Swimming Centre the other day and was surprised to see a lot of empty seats in the accredited areas reserved for the IOC, press and broadcasters.
"Almost an entire half of the entire venue was taken up [with reserved seats]. For every gold medal Michael Phelps swam there were hundreds and hundreds of empty seats in these areas," he said.
That's not going to happen in Vancouver, where 30 per cent of the 1.6 million available tickets are being reserved for members of the "Olympic Family," including sponsors, IOC members and the media. The other 70 per cent goes on sale starting Oct. 3, with a lottery system in place for the highest-demand sports.
Cobb said the IOC has tentatively agreed to move from the best seats to the upper balcony of GM Place, and to reduce the number of tickets it gets during the preliminary rounds.
"Historically they have been too big and we need to really push hard at changing the traditional size of these areas and to shrink them and expand the number of seats we can sell to the public," he said. "I think given the experience here in Beijing, we are going to find we have some support in doing that."
The media will be a bigger problem.
"The one I would say I am not satisfied with yet is the press. Every seat at a table that a press person takes is three seats that spectators could sit in. I think they are far too big and unnecessary for a lot of people," Cobb said.
But media organizations routinely complain about not having enough tickets to high-demand sports. Although journalists have open access to most events, there is a quota system for events such as opening and closing ceremonies, swimming and gymnastics finals in summer, and hockey and figure skating in winter.
At both summer and winter Games, attendance is still an issue for less-popular events. But Cobb doesn't believe that will be the case in 2010, where he expects tickets to sell out.
"We know the demand for winter sport in our city is going to be beyond what it has ever been for a Winter Games and we're willing to put in that effort and that fight to free up as many seats as we can," he said.
jefflee@vancouversun.com
Vancouver's Olympic committee plans to sell every ticket for 2010 events
Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, August 18, 2008
BEIJING - When International Olympic Committee members go to the gold medal hockey game in Vancouver in 2010, they'll be sitting in the upper bowl of GM Place, a long ways away from the front rows that will be sold to John Q. Public.
And when the media go to write on the Games, they'll find far fewer desks in the prime spots of the venues, replaced with more seats for the paying public.
That's because the Vancouver Organizing Committee is determined to find more seats to sell in order to solve a historic illness that has afflicted the Games - Empty Seat Syndrome.
Coupled with one of the most aggressive and technologically advanced anti-scalping plans ever developed, Vanoc intends to make sure every seat at the 2010 Games is filled - and filled with authentic ticket holders.
Empty seats have been a problem at most Olympic Games, even though tickets have often been sold out. Often it is because people who bought tickets to see an athlete or team lost interest if that person or team got knocked out of competition.
At the Turin Winter Games two years ago, Vanoc executive vice-president Dave Cobb pledged to solve the problem in 2010 by bringing in technology that would allow unused tickets to be recycled to last-minute customers.
He's also warned National Olympic Committees that if they are caught illegally supplying preferred-access tickets to ticket brokers - a traditional source of revenue for some committees - they risk having every ticket sold to them to cancelled through bar-code technology.
On Monday, Cobb said the problem of getting tickets into the hands of the public appears to be just as severe in Beijing, where there is high demand for some events but seats still go empty.
But he's also taking on the IOC and the press for a share of the best areas in the house, often at finish lines or in prime viewing spots. To paying customers on the other side of the venue, they look enticing but empty and unused except for the best events.
Cobb was in the Water Cube National Swimming Centre the other day and was surprised to see a lot of empty seats in the accredited areas reserved for the IOC, press and broadcasters.
"Almost an entire half of the entire venue was taken up [with reserved seats]. For every gold medal Michael Phelps swam there were hundreds and hundreds of empty seats in these areas," he said.
That's not going to happen in Vancouver, where 30 per cent of the 1.6 million available tickets are being reserved for members of the "Olympic Family," including sponsors, IOC members and the media. The other 70 per cent goes on sale starting Oct. 3, with a lottery system in place for the highest-demand sports.
Cobb said the IOC has tentatively agreed to move from the best seats to the upper balcony of GM Place, and to reduce the number of tickets it gets during the preliminary rounds.
"Historically they have been too big and we need to really push hard at changing the traditional size of these areas and to shrink them and expand the number of seats we can sell to the public," he said. "I think given the experience here in Beijing, we are going to find we have some support in doing that."
The media will be a bigger problem.
"The one I would say I am not satisfied with yet is the press. Every seat at a table that a press person takes is three seats that spectators could sit in. I think they are far too big and unnecessary for a lot of people," Cobb said.
But media organizations routinely complain about not having enough tickets to high-demand sports. Although journalists have open access to most events, there is a quota system for events such as opening and closing ceremonies, swimming and gymnastics finals in summer, and hockey and figure skating in winter.
At both summer and winter Games, attendance is still an issue for less-popular events. But Cobb doesn't believe that will be the case in 2010, where he expects tickets to sell out.
"We know the demand for winter sport in our city is going to be beyond what it has ever been for a Winter Games and we're willing to put in that effort and that fight to free up as many seats as we can," he said.
jefflee@vancouversun.com