The Associated Press reports that Beijing Games organizers promised Tuesday they would let more people into the tightly guarded Olympic Green after sponsors of the Games complained about security restrictions keeping visitors away from their promotional pavilions, said a marketing official. The corporate pavilions are inside the Olympic Green’s security cordon.
Sponsors including General Electric and Coca Cola have spent tens of millions of dollars to link their brands to the Olympics, and have created costly displays on the plaza beside the Birds Nest stadium and other key venues, reports the Associated Press. Access was limited to ticket holders for sports events and at many pavilions staff outnumbered the handful of visitors.
Gerhard Heiberg, chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Marketing Commission, said following a meeting with IOC officials that organizers have agreed to give out passes to allow thousands more people on the Olympic Green every day. He said, “I am reassured after our talks that there will be more people going through the pavilions”.
He added once track and field events start Friday in the National Stadium, called the Bird’s Nest, there should be about 150,000 people a day passing through the Olympic Green.
Meanwhile BOCOG has purchased more than five million biodegradable plastic bags to dispose of garbage at Games venues. BOCOG made seven kinds of bags available for the Games and more than 92 per cent of the ingredients used in the bags was completely biodegradable.
