Oswald pleased with Olympic preparations
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-09 08:47

Denis Oswald, IOC's chief coordinator for the Athens Olympics, said on Thursday that he was impressed with the progress made so far regarding Olympic venues.

Oswald made the remarks after he had an inspection tour of the Media Village located on the campus of the National Metsovio Polytechnic Institute, the Traffic Management Center, the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Village.

Oswald gave thumbs-up to the glass-and-steel roof of the Olympic Stadium, which was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and cost a mammoth 189 million euros.

"A while ago I was wondering if the Calatrava roof would be able to be slipped into place. Now it is in place and looks very good," he said.

When asked about ticket sales, the IOC official said that 80% of the revenue target for ticket sales has already been reached, and it is thus satisfactory.

Athens is desperately stepping up efforts to sell seats for what have become the most expensive games ever. Of the 5.3 million tickets issued, 3.4 million are unsold by June 23.

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