Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, has played down suggestions that empty seats at the European championships could affect London’s bid for the 2029 worlds. The sparse crowds earlier in the week in Birmingham have been one of the big talking points of the championships, with criticisms of the ticket prices and the marketing of the event, even though the last four days are close to a sellout. However European Athletics have backed organisers and on Friday it also said expressed delight that the event was getting peak audiences “exceeding two million people” and a 20% market share on the BBC.
When Coe was asked about the empty seats and its potential impact on London’s bid, he quickly pointed out that the capital had shown repeatedly during the Olympics in 2012 and the world championships in 2017 that it does get full stadiums. It’s always a challenge starting a championship on a Monday morning … local circumstances, middle of the summer, pretty hot out there, not a lot of covering in the stadium, I think there will be a whole series of things.” Coe said he would not have a vote for the 2029 world championships, which will be taken next month. Instead an evaluation panel will give its recommendation to the World Athletics Council after using a series of metrics to evaluate the four cities involved – London, Munich, Nairobi and Rome – and they will decide.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
