the sound of the vuvuzelas hampered communication among players on the pitch, and broadcasting companies, which complained that commentators' voices were being drowned out by the sound. Cristiano Ronaldo went on record to state that the sound of the vuvuzelas disturbed the teams' concentration. Others watching on television have complained that the ambient audio feed from the stadium only contains the sounds of the vuvuzelas and the natural sounds of people in the stands are drowned out. A spokesperson for the ESPN network said it was taking steps to minimize the noise of the crowd on its broadcasts. Portuguese telecommunications company Portugal Telecom announced on 16 June an offer of an alternative audio feed, in which the vuvuzela sound is edited out, to the customers of its Pay-TV service called MEO. When asked a few days into the tournament whether consideration would be given to banning vuvuzelas during matches, South African organising chief Danny Jordaan replied, "if there are grounds to do so, yes" and that "if any land on the pitch in anger we will take action." Ticketing and attendance Some first-round games suffered from large blocks of unoccupied stands, including one match with nearly 11,000 empty seats. FIFA reported that group ticket purchases went unused, and that current attendance levels were in fact second only to the 1994 event during the early round period. References Event Effects