ATHENS, Aug 16 (AFP) - Olympic chiefs insisted Monday no tickets would be given away or sold at a discount to end the spectacle of empty stands that has marred the opening days of the Athens Games.
Michalis Zacharatos, chief spokesman for Athens Games orgnaisers ATHOC, said giving away tickets or slashing prices would be unfair to millions of fans who had already paid the full rate.
"We will not be giving away tickets," Zacharatos said. "There will be no discounted tickets sold. This is a policy which is fair to those 2.9 million people that have bought tickets so far."
On Sunday IOC officials, worried by the television images being flashed around the world of athletes competing in near-empty stadiums, told games organisers to give tickets away if necessary.
Athens officials said Monday that 2,920,000 tickets out of a total of 5.4 million tickets had been sold so far, around 56 percent.
Zacharatos said he expected further sales on Monday would take the total past three million, leaving organisers on course to match their target of five million sales.
"With two weeks left, we expect to break the three million mark today," Zacharatos said. "That fact is very surprising and encouraging for us."
Total ticket sales for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the Barcelona Games four years later were only 2.7 million and three million respectively, he added.
Zacharatos again expressed confidence that crowd figures would rise as the games progressed.
"There is no doubt that once we get through the preliminaries the stadia will fill. Most of the events are sold out from the quarter-finals onwards," he said.
Zacharatos acknowledged that the dismal performances of Greece's teams in the mens and womens football tournaments had contributed to a lack of interest that has seen group games played out in near-empty venues.
There had been high hopes of a successful football tournament following Greece's shock victory in the Euro 2004 tournament.
"With regards to soccer it's not up to the standards of the European or South American championships or the World Cup," Zacharatos said.
"Unfortunately the Greek team has not been performing to expectations. If they had the crowds would have been bigger."