London 2012's Deighton upbeat on ticketing plans

By James Toney, Sportsbeat

LONDON 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton is convinced his ticketing plans will mean no empty seats at the Olympics.

CONFIDENT: Paul Deighton is confident London 2012's ticketing strategy will be a success, after learning the lessons of previous Games and the ongoing FIFA World Cup in South Africa (Getty Images)

FIFA officials are set to launch an enquiry after huge numbers of hospitality seats went unoccupied for key games during the World Cup in South Africa, with shut out fans fuming at the number of empty seats during last night's semi-final in Durban.

The blame has been pointed towards official sponsors, who claim they were unable to fill their allocation of seats because of the recession.

With venue construction on schedule and the budget for sponsorship on track, ticketing remains the biggest issue in Deighton's crowded in-tray - with the £440 million target amounting to ‘two thirds of the money' he must still raise to fund the Games.

"It's right up there in our top priorities," said Deighton.

"We are staging some of the world's premier events and it's clearly unacceptable to have tranches of empty seats in the venues - and not just hospitality seats.

"I'm very happy with how our ticketing strategy is evolving. It's very important that people in this country believe they can get a ticket and be at the Games

"We want to have full stadia and we want to make the atmosphere totally electric."

Locog launched the pre-registration phase of their ticketing strategy in March and will reveal their pricing plan later this year, with sales commencing in Spring 2011.

"We've always said that tickets should be affordable," added Deighton. 

"When we announce it, I don't think you will be disappointed with how we will price our tickets."

International Olympic Committee executive director Gilbert Felli claimed he was happy with London 2012's ticketing plans - the issue being one of many discussed during a four-day inspection visit.

"The IOC has faced the same difficulties as FIFA have at the World Cup in recent Games when tickets are sold but still remain empty," he said.

"A lot of creative work has been done towards the goal of full stadia and we should be much better off here in London than we have been at past Games."

Denis Oswald, the IOC's chief inspector, also claimed the complicated Games sports schedule was close to being finalised.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson is keen many of the free events - such as the marathon, triathlon and cycling road races - take place at weekends.

But Oswald admitted any solution won't satisfy all parties.

"We have 26 sports and many different events and we must have a balanced programme for viewers, spectators and also all the logistic aspects behind the scenes," he said.

"We also have to take into account that athletes take part in more than one event and need time to recover.

"It's very complex but we are close to a final solution - 95 percent of the work is done. 

"Every decision has to be approved by the relevant international federation and it takes some time but we are confident in the coming weeks the programme will be finalised."