The 2004 Olympic Games will consist of less visitors, fewer media members, the Games will be more compact and the athletes will have fewer entourages accompanying them according to Rogge who was speaking at the end of a conference on sports and the environment in Turin.
He stated: "In Sydney we sold 9.5 million tickets and in Athens we have only 5.5 million tickets because there is only half the capacity. We could have had double the capacity in Athens, but then we would have to leave behind a lot of white elephants, large venues that can’t be used to full capacity once the Games are over.
"We want to reduce the size and leave behind a better legacy for the Games. We’ve also been limiting the number of hotel rooms needed by bringing in cruise ships for Games that take place in port cities like Barcelona, Sydney and Athens."
About 5.3 million tickets have been available for the 2004 Games and as of September 30 more than 1.67 million tickets had been sold, which is more than half of the three million tickets set aside for the general public.
Another 2.3 million tickets have been reserved for Olympic sponsors and IOC officials.
Next year's Athens Olympics is a considerably downsized operation on previous Games according to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.
