(Volunteer's Diary) London needs more spectators not medals
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E-mail Xinhua, July 30, 2012
By Barry He
LONDON, July 29 (Xinhua) -- I'm not going to lie; there is something pretty addictive about scanning tickets. Whether it be the satisfying beep that the handheld scanner emits, or the relieved look on family's faces (16 fraudulent ticket touts were arrested in the past two days), there's no denying that I'm enjoying myself.
I'm not alone either; the spectators in the Greenwich Park venue give off a fantastic vibe. It's just a shame that there's so little of them really. I've genuinely seen longer queues in McDonald's. I'm almost tempted to let in the surprisingly high volume of poor souls who produce tickets for the wrong date, for reasons other than the uncomfortable evilness I feel when children have to be turned away.
In the park there are areas would have more people in it on a normal summers day, let alone on the first day of the greatest show on earth.
If anything, the temporary security parameters stop the usual park goers from enjoying the sunshine, further cutting numbers.
Granted the actual inside of the Olympic equestrian venue manages to boast a slightly higher turn-out than the grasslands of south-east London, but even here there is a noticeable abundance of chairs with their seats folded up.
Quite a few of the seats that are occupied are done so by volunteers, on their breaks and keen to catch a bit of the adrenaline inducing, pulse racing spectacle that is Equestrian Dressage.
This is particularly jarring as last year I failed to get tickets for any of the events at all. Photos have showed soldiers being drafted in to occupy vast expanses of emptiness in the North Greenwich Arena during the world gymnastics championships.
Granted they probably deserve a break more than I do but the ridiculousness of it still stands. Londoners in theory should have had more time to watch the Games and frankly it's annoying to see so many empty seats and wasted life time experiences.
(Barry He is a law student in the University of Southampton. Growing up in London and watching the Beijing Olympics four years ago with his Chinese-born parents, he is serving the London Olympics at Greenwich Park as a volunteer.) Enditem
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