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Kids to fill missing seats at Turin Games
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-08 07:01
TURIN, Italy: The Torino Olympic organizers (TOROC) have lined up thousands
of school children to fill up the empty places in the stadiums during the Games.
Final preparations
are going on in Palasport Arena prior to Ice Hockey tournament in turin.
[Reuters] |
TOROC president Valentino Castellani admitted Monday that tickets sales for
some of the events, such as the luge, skeleton and bob, were very poor but
special low price tickets were to be supplied to Turin schools to ensure
spectators.
"We have a contingency plan to bring in boys and girls. It will be an
education for them," said Castellani.
He added that so far no event was sold out but that 700,000 tickets, about 85
per cent of those available, had been sold.
His comments came after the organizers presented their final briefing to the
IOC's executive board.
"We are very satisfied. We are ready. We are very committed," said
Castellani.
TOROC director general Cesare Vaciago confirmed that there were several
transport problems but he insisted they will be sorted out by the time the Games
open on Friday.
Part of the problem is that 2000 drivers have been shipped in from all over
Italy and have yet to learn all the routes.
Another problem is getting local drivers to respect the special Olympic lanes
which have been installed to allow Olympic traffic to move freely.
"We are confident the problems will be overcome in the next few days. It is a
learning curve," said Vaciago.
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