World Athletics president Seb Coe blasts ticket prices for next summer's Paris Olympics... as he urges organisers to make them affordable to avoid 'unacceptable' prospect of empty seats

Seb Coe fears fans are being priced out of attending next summer’s Olympics in Paris, which could result in ‘unacceptable’ empty seats at the athletics.

Tickets for a session at the Stade de France are being listed for as much as £850 on the official Paris 2024 website. The cheapest remaining tickets for an evening are £170, while even mid-range category seats are priced at £330.

World Athletics president Coe has now raised his concerns about costs to Paris organisers, insisting a full stadium should be a ‘prerequisite’ for the No1 Olympic sport.

‘We have made the point that these prices are lumpy,’ said Coe, who chaired the organising committee for London 2012. ‘These are going to be the most expensive ticket prices in an athletics arena that we have witnessed at an Olympic Games.

‘There are difficult balances for any organising committee. It is not easy. I have done that job. But if I am wearing my World Athletics hat, I don’t want fans being costed out of the stadium, and I certainly don’t want athletes and their families being costed out of the stadium.

‘There are always going to be premium tickets, but it is important that our stadiums are full of people that love our sport, not people that can afford to get to an Olympics.’

Coe is worried that poor crowds in Paris would tarnish the image of the sport so soon after the success of August’s World Championships in Budapest, where there was a full stadium every night.

‘No sport, our sport, cannot afford to look marginal in big championships,’ he said. ‘It really is unacceptable.

‘I don't want people to think that Budapest was a one-off. This is the new standard. Full stadia are absolutely a prerequisite.’

Meanwhile, Coe admitted that the doping scandal involving a male British Olympian was not a good look for his sport.

In court papers filed in the US last week, an unnamed UK track-and-field star was alleged to have been given banned drugs by an American therapist before the Tokyo Olympics. The Athletics Integrity Unit are now investigating.

‘No story like that is a good story,’ added Coe. ‘But I always take comfort from the fact the AIU are entirely across it.

‘I know the AIU will deal with i, in the way they always deal with these issues, at a gold-standard level. Let’s just wait for what comes out of it. I’m really happy to leave it with them for the moment.

‘But the one thing for me which is clear is that this is never singularly about the athletes. You do have to be conscious of the entourage around them - that's coaches, managers, friends, families.’