More than half of Athenians plan to stay in the capital for the Olympics and nearly half intend to go to sporting venues but the great majority have yet to buy tickets, according to a nationwide poll made public yesterday.

A total of 60.5 percent of Athenians intend to stay put and 40.7 percent of this group want to watch the events from up close, according to the poll conducted among 2,000 Greeks in the last week of June.

But only 7.3 percent of Greeks have already bought their tickets, according to the research conducted by pollsters MRB, Research International and VPRC on behalf of the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC). However, this figure stood at only 2.9 percent one month ago in May, prompting ATHOC to note that Greeks were favoring the “last-minute solution” in purchasing tickets.

The poll also found that 70.9 percent of Greeks regarded the possibility of a terrorist attack during the Games as small.