Last-ditch bid to fill opening night's seats

Melbourne is leaning on its 15,000 unpaid volunteers for one more chore - to fill the stands on opening night.

Thousands of tickets remain unsold for Wednesday's opening ceremony and the closing ceremony 11 days later. Most of these will now go to the volunteers.

Certain events, such as the track and field programme on what they term Super Sunday, will have capacity crowds and overall a record number of tickets have been sold. But in a desperate attempt to flog the remaining 400,000, organisers have used a controversial direct marketing blitz, sending letters to 150,000 households with a personally signed "exclusive invitation from Melbourne 2006 chairman Ron Walker" encouraging recipients to "enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime experience".

But Melburnians are baulking at being asked to cough up around A$1000 for the best seats in the house, and there has been an angry backlash. Australian Marketing Institute president Roger James has condemned it as "downright misleading", and a woman who received an "invitation" addressed to her husband who died six years ago called it "disgraceful, unprofessional and insulting".

Organisers may have seats on their hands; what they don't want is egg on their faces.

- INDEPENDENT