Vips Put The Acog In A B-I-N-D

Faced with the prospect of prime seats going unused before the wary eyes of television cameras and ticketless fans, Olympic organizers are trying to figure out how to handle VIP no-shows.

Ideally, those tickets would be surrendered to the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, which would then sell them to the general public. Billy Payne, the ACOG president, said doing that is not so simple.

“It’s political in nature, obviously,” Payne said Wednesday.

ACOG is required to set aside a certain number of seats at each event for VIPs, including officials of the international federations that govern the various Olympic sports. These seats generally are among the best available and often appear in full view behind the action during televised coverage.

In past Olympics, particularly during early rounds, some officials have found something better to do.

“It appeared to the television cameras as well as the spectators: Look at all those empty seats and therefore wasted seats,” Payne said.

ACOG will sell tickets at box offices during the Games and will have the capacity to print tickets on the spot.

While some sponsors have agreed to give unused tickets back to ACOG in time to resell them, Payne said doing that with the sports federations is more difficult because they tend to make their decisions at the last minute.

He said, for example, that officials of the swimming federation may have blocks of tickets to two aquatic events held at the same time.

“They logically would like to reserve the option to make the choice, even at the last minute,” Payne said. “It’s just difficult.”