The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has reclaimed 3,000 tickets from officials who are unlikely to use them and sold them to the public today.

As Digital Journal reported on July 29, LOCOG is taking heat for having empty seats in some major events at the London 2012 Olympics, including some that could have easily been sold out if the tickets had been available to the
public.

In an effort to pacify angry sports fans who had not been able to buy tickets to their favourite events, LOCOG has now reclaimed 3,000 tickets and put them up for sale to the public.

Games organizers said in their daily press conference that they were approaching national Olympic committees on a "daily, session-by-session basis", in an attempt to ensure that more seats are filled.

A statement said: "LOCOG updated the meeting on the challenge around empty seating in the accredited areas and set out the measures being taken to address the issue. This will obviously be kept under constant review on a venue by venue basis over the coming days to ensure that as many seats as possible are filled."

LOCOG communications director Jackie Brock-Doyle said "We're doing this session by session, talking to the accredited groups - including obviously broadcast media and everybody else - and asking whether we can release, for the different sessions, tickets back into the public pot."

Londoners have apparently been snapping up seats at the gymnastics and beach volleyball events, now available for purchase.

Apparently it is also planned to upgrade members of the public to better seats that would otherwise be left empty.

Soldiers and other accredited Olympic workers and 150 schoolchildren and teachers have also been drafted in to fill seats.

The Guardian reports that Olympic officials have said that there are 100,000 to 150,000 tickets still available for Olympic events, excluding the football event.

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