Kelly Exelby: Lots of empty seats

Twitter has been working overtime in the first few days of the Olympics as rows and rows of empty seats are beamed out around the world, enraging Britons who have struggled without success for months to get their hands on tickets, with many parents of competitors shut out as well on a meagre ticket ration.

Ticket holders leaving an event are also being urged to "recycle" their ticket by allowing its resale for just a few quid to potential spectator waiting outside venues - a practice common at tennis venues around the world.

Near-empty stadia is not a new phenomenon - Delhi also suffered the embarrassingly low turnout blues two years ago when it hosted the Commonwealth Games, although to be fair when 80 per cent of the country survive on less than $2 a day, unless it was Tendulkar that was tumble-turning then attracting locals to the pool was going to be a big ask.

It seems organisers are now scrambling to fill the empty seats allocated to but not used by members of the so-called Olympic family - mainly national federations, sponsors, officials, VIPs and politicians who either haven't bothered in the first week or are saving themselves for when the medal action happens.

The dollar rules (not a shock when it comes to the International Olympic Committee) and now soldiers, schoolchildren and their teachers are being bused in to fill in the gaps - all of which must be galling for Londoners and visitors who can't get near the stadiums because they've apparently been sold out for months.

Rows of empty seats, usually in premium front-row positions, have been an Olympic fixture for more than a decade but London officials had pledged to fix it after Beijing.

More than 120,000 seats remained empty at London 2012 venues such as the aquatic centre. Other popular events such as gymnastics, tennis and swimming had swathes of empty seats despite supposedly being sold out. About 200,000 football tickets remain available. Hardly a few pockets of unused seating then.

Tauranga's Nga Utanga, father of Cook Islanders flatwater paddler Josh, spoke of frustration last week at trying to buy tickets, with friends in the UK going online around the clock in a desperate (and ultimately successful) search for seats at the kayaking arena.

Several parents of Kiwi swimmers have also been thwarted by the aquatic venue's one-ticket allocation but flew halfway around the world anyway in the hope of getting what they need - and that's only for heats. Otherwise, presumably, it's off to the pub to catch the action on the big screen. Imagine what they're thinking with seats at sought-after events like the swimming sitting unoccupied.

So what's the solution? In short, there isn't one.

A start would be the IOC taking a close look at those riding the gravy train who haven't bothered to show, although the organisation doesn't have a stellar track record of biting off the hand that's filling the coffers.

Apparently the worst offenders are overseas ticket agencies who are holding on to tens of thousands of unsold tickets they either haven't been able to offload or are hoarding in the hope of flicking them off at the last minute at inflated prices.

Mind you it isn't all acres of empty space, with the basketball venue unable to accommodate an influx of international media when the United States and France clashed.

Hordes of angry, mainly French journalists stormed past a slight but feisty official to get to the gangways, while others took to the unoccupied Olympic family seating - only to be turfed out when guests arrived en masse in the second quarter.