Big gaps at many venues in seating areas reserved for Games officials, their friends and family have infuriated thousands of fans who tried desperately but failed to get tickets under a complex ballot system.

But confusion surrounded the system for recycling tickets, with guides at the Olympic Park giving conflicting information about where to buy them and what was available.

Tips were circulating by word of mouth. Canny fans discovered that box offices at the basketball arena were selling tickets for basketball and hockey, and recycled seats for handball and water polo could be found at the Copper Box, which is hosting handball and modern pentathlon.

"At least they are doing something and they might be pretty good seats if they are for notables," said Sue Kerr from Cambridge, who had a day pass to the park with her husband, daughter and grandson.

All four were rewarded for their patience and ingenuity in finding the right queue and sticking it out. They purchased the hottest tickets in the park to see the British women's hockey team play South Korea, paying just 5 pounds for adults and 1 pound for her eight-year-old grandson.

"The seats are great," Kerr said. "It was a long wait, but well worth it in the end."

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) said it was freeing up tickets from spectators who had left events, and "whittling down" the number of seats held open for Olympic officials by finding out which tickets would not be used and then offering them for sale on its website.

LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe was unhappy to be cornered by Reuters in the Olympic family area for badminton at Wembley Stadium, where there were plenty of empty seats.

"Oh, you're kidding me, you're kidding me, find something serious to write about, like sport," Coe said before walking away.

GALLING SIGHT

The sight of so many empty seats on the opening days has been particularly galling for Games organisers who had promised to avoid the situation that occurred in Beijing four years ago when the host nation was forced to bus in spectators to fill empty spaces.

Some of them, including at prime attractions like swimming and gymnastics, have been filled by soldiers when not on duty conducting security checks at venues.

British Olympic Association BOA.L Chairman Colin Moynihan said on Tuesday that the International Olympic Committee must take control of ticketing and create a new platform for future Games.

He said Britain would raise the issue with the IOC at the post-Games briefing in Rio de Janeiro, the host for 2016.

"The IOC have got to take the lead to make sure that the investment is in place for a state-of-the-art ticketing programme that can then be improved from Games to Games," he said.

A LOCOG spokeswoman said attendance for Olympic Park venues had been over 90 percent each day, while the figure for all venues was around 86 percent.

Another 3,800 "reclaimed" tickets reserved for the Olympic family were put on sale on Monday night over 30 sessions and about 15 sports, and all had been snapped up by Tuesday morning, the spokeswoman added.

An IOC spokesman said: "We are looking into how we distribute our tickets to our national Olympic committees. I can't talk about what the policy will be but our audit commission is looking into it, there will be a report some time after the Games." (Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby and Ian Ransom, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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