IOC expect to avoid ticketing issues

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are confident London 2012 will escape the ticketing issues that troubled the Beijing Games.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director for the Olympic Games, admits the 2008 competition suffered from the large number of empty seats, even at prestige events.

All 6.8 million tickets issued two years ago were sold yet volunteers had to be found to fill up empty venues and create some atmosphere.

However, the IOC have used this year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver as a testing ground for some adjustments that should ensure London prevents a similar situation from unfolding.

"One of the best lessons that London 2012 can learn from Vancouver is the ticketing process," said Felli.

"We had a lot of issues in Beijing over tickets in terms of empty seats.

"After Beijing we thought up several ideas and decided that we would apply them in London, but then we decided to test a certain number of those facilities in Vancouver.

"There were ideas like the reselling of non-used tickets which was a success. We also had fans all around the stadium, right to the bottom.

"It was excellent to see the stadiums full at the Vancouver Games, which did very well when it came to filling the venues."