Empty seats at the Summer Olympics

Although the events were supposedly sold-out, rows of seats were empty on the first full day of competition at the London Summer Olympics. Olympics organizers have now begun investigating the cause.

Empty seats filled the stadiums of swimming heats, volleyball and gymnastic equestrian events.

According to CBC, Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s Culture Secretary, believes that the empty seats belonged to the Olympic family members, corporate sponsors, IOC members, athletes and other accredited officials.

However, it is unclear why these empty seats were not offered to the public.

 James Pearce, BBC Olympics correspondent, noticed that most of the empty seats were in the lower-tier, meaning that they were VIP. Pearce believes the true fans in the top tiers should have been allowed to move down after 10 minutes.

London organizers had been trying to avoid this problem as it had occurred in the past.  The Athens games were in the same situation as well Beijing. 

Organizers now plan to call in school children, teachers and soldiers to fill in these empty seats.