Lord Coe unveils crowd gap plans

In the Aquatic Centre, there were hundreds of empty seats despite all public tickets having been sold Credit: Will Mott for ITV News

Troops, students and teachers could all be asked to fill gaps left in empty Olympic stadiums, Lord Coe said today.

Members of the military are being brought in at the last minute, students and teachers from the local area are also being invited and other fans could have their tickets upgraded, organisers said.

Tickets for double sessions, such as those for hockey, basketball, water polo and handball, are also being recycled and re-sold as people leave.

Lord Coe said: "It's not easy to ask people (in the accredited Olympic family) at the beginning of the Games to ask people exactly how, where and when they're going to be in those seats.

"This morning was a very good example, we looked at gymnastics, we could see at this moment there are empty seats in the accredited area - the rest of the venue is looking pretty good this morning, there's a good atmosphere.

"So we were able to move those troops from - I'm not quite sure whether they were on a rest period or whether it was a transition from work through to a rest period - but they're sitting there enjoying the gymnastics.

"We can and we have moved them in there.

"Yesterday, we got pre-accredited students and teachers from the local boroughs. We were able to put 115, 120 into a venue."

The London 2012 chairman went on: "We can clearly sell more tickets, which we did yesterday. We sold something like 1,000 tickets over three sessions.

"The other thing is we can tactically upgrade and move people."

Asked about how other tickets would be recycled to others in the Olympic Park, he said: "It's very much on the Wimbledon format.

"It sensibly takes place in our park venues, where we've got classically the double headers, in sports like hockey, basketball water polo, handball.

"On handball yesterday, we recycled just under 300 tickets, about 283 tickets, and they went out to adults at £5 and children at £1.

"Those numbers will increase over the course of the Games.

"It's sensible. People who classically have gone to see one specific team, but the ticket covers them for the next session, and they leave to go to do something else."