Melbourne Commonwealth Games organizers announced Wednesday that they are giving away 23,000 tickets to the closing ceremony in order to fill the venue of Main Cricket Ground (MCG).
Tickets will be handed to Games volunteers and performers from the opening and closing ceremonies and if the volunteers are on duty they will be able to give their tickets to friends or family.
While 50,000 tickets had been sold, Games CEO John Harnden said few closing ceremonies at major sporting events were ever sold out. He said, “we believe this is a great way to cap off and make sure that stadium is absolutely jam-packed on the final night of what is going to be a great two weeks”.
About 3,000 tickets will still be available to the public after the free handout.
Meanwhile Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) officials have defended their decision to conceal details of their anti-doping tests until the Games are over, reports Reuters.
CGF president Mike Fennell told a news conference Thursday that any public announcements about athletes who fail doping tests would be delayed until after the Games end Sunday to ensure the proper appeals process had been followed. “We believe it is important to protect the integrity of all the athletes taking part in the Games and to complete these processes before any announcement is made on whether all clean, or all dirty or whatever.
“I do agree the process is a little long but the process is a little different here to protect the athletes from misinterpretation of what is going on.
“It is important to protect the rights of the athletes properly because the penalties are severe in the end”, he said.
