Incheon Asiad a positive Games despite issues: OCA

INCHEON — The staging of the 17th Asian Games in Incheon has hardly been smooth-sailing for its organisers, who have had to deal with problems including a match-fixing cloud over its football competition, a protest by the Qatari women’s basketball team on rules banning the wearing of the hijab on court, doping scandals and athletes going AWOL, or absent without leave.

But the Incheon Asiad has been a “positive Games” that saw “more than 90 Asian Games records broken and 17 world records” despite the many issues, said Husain Al Musallam, director-general of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

Speaking to TODAY after a joint media briefing between the OCA and Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee (IAGOC) yesterday, he added: “Of course, if you have mass participation of over 10,000 athletes, over 6,000 coaches and officials, media, guests and international federations, you will see more issues like transportation.

“But people are enjoying the Games and they are going there to witness the high standards in participation, talent and results.”

Added Wei Jizhong, OCA’s honorary life vice-president: “With all Asian Games, there are always shortcomings in the beginning with transportation, food in the village. It is the same with the IAGOC, but now the Games is good.”

Incheon spent almost US$2 billion (S$2.55 billion) to stage the Games, building 17 venues. But while the IAGOC remains confident they will not become white elephants after the Games end this Saturday, filling the seats at the 46 competition venues remains a challenge.

Tickets sales have been pegged at 23 billion won (S$27.7 million), 66 per cent of the organisers’ 35 billion won sales target for the Incheon Games.

“We are not worried about ticket sales. We told the organisers they don’t need to build big stadiums, but they said it is for the people,” said Husain.

Although the IAGOC previously insisted it would not issue free tickets for the Asiad, the committee admitted yesterday that only about 30,000 people had purchased tickets for the Sept 19 opening ceremony at the 62,000-seat Incheon Asiad Main Stadium, where top-tier tickets cost as much as US$1,000.

While the IAGOC did not reveal how many tickets were given out, Lee Il-hee, its deputy secretary-general said: “We understand many had difficulty buying the tickets (due to the price).

“But tickets to the (2010) Guangzhou Asian Games were more expensive. We held several meetings to decide who to give the free tickets to. We prioritised supporters, such as undergraduates who devoted their time to the Asian Games, Incheon education superintendents and those in the military.

“We wanted to be very rational about giving free tickets to the opening ceremony and the same could happen for the closing ceremony.”