The Seoul Metropolitan Government is under fire after allegations surfaces that employees of some district offices were forced to buy tickets to the Asian Games to help boost sales.

Organizers of the event, which kicked off Saturday in Incheon for a 16-day run, have been struggling to counter low ticket sales. Though the spectacular opening ceremony fared relatively well, many other competitions are taking place in empty stadiums.

Seoul City reportedly requested its workers to join the cause last week through official papers and a video meeting of officials in charge of finance.

“The document simply requested employees’ participation but each division was assigned to buy certain amounts of tickets during internal meetings,” an official at a Seoul district office was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

An employee at another district office said: “We received a notice requesting that about 10 percent of workers at each division go to see the games.”

Around 30 percent of tickets for the events have been sold, according to the steering committee. This is an improvement from roughly 10 percent last week but falls far short of its goal.

The flagging ticket sales add to the longstanding financial woes surrounding Incheon, which has launched special economic zones and other ambitious business projects but failed to meet its foreign investment targets.

Incheon launched the Free Economic Zone in 2003 with the aim of developing a leading business, logistics and tourism center in Northeast Asia. But the ambition was dented by doubts of its advantages over potential rivals Shanghai and Hong Kong; domestic controversy over financial, real-estate and labor deregulations; and a lack of interest from international investors.

In addition, the global financial meltdown of 2008-09 took a huge toll on the FEZ. Cross-border investment dried up, development projects stalled and the city government’s debt snowballed.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)