Athletics-Slow ticket sales for worlds prompt ad campaign
BERLIN, July 15 (Reuters) - Slow ticket sales a month before the world championships in Berlin have prompted athletics chiefs and local organisers to launch an ad campaign to boost sales.
Berlin will host the championships between Aug. 15-23 but organisers have so far sold about half of the targeted 500,000 tickets.
"We have had constant talks about this and the (International Association of Athletics Federations) president (Lamine Diack) was in Berlin about a week ago. Talks are at the highest level," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told Reuters on Wednesday.
"The IAAF is now supporting a number of new initiatives, including giant posters and radio campaigns."
Davies said several other media-directed campaigns including interview opportunities for German reporters with major athletes were also under way to boost domestic interest in the competition.
"It is now more about educating people about athletics... to highlight the drama of the competition," Davies said.
Past world championships had shown similar ticket sales patterns before business briskly picked up in the weeks leading up to the event, Davies said.
He said filling an 80,000 seater Olympic stadium for nine consecutive days was a challenge in itself with past editions facing similar problems at the same stage.
"Olympic stadiums tend to be very big for these events," Davies said.
However, some 64,000 people poured into Berlin's Olympic stadium for this year's inaugural Golden League one-day athletics meeting in June.
(Editing by Justin Palmer; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
