Olympics Tickets

[meenaghman]

I am a bit miffed though that many people from London, who are paying partly for the games, and around the country have not got tickets. I understand that it is a global event and there will be hundreds of thousands of people coming to this country, so there will be a political/economic element to the way the tickets have been allocated, but I do think that more tickets should of been earmarked for people from the British Isles.

Where do I start on this ... The Olympics aren't barnett formulised... its not just Londoners paying for this privilege.

This sort of explains it - http://sluggerotoole.com/2010/10/20/the-olympic-rip-off-continues/
There's other figures on the internet from Plaid. The Scots aren't creating too much of a fuss as the Commonwealth games are on in a few years time in Glasgow.

In Northern Ireland We "benefitted" from an extra 100M or so sports/culture/arts grant in this years budget (which was taken out of block grant Health budget as it wasn't ringfenced as in England.. but have seen virtually all capital sports spending ceased, and indeed the outlook for both Capital and recurrent Arts/culture/Sports spending is a minus (approx 10-15 percent fall by 2014).

So on the one hand we have this mullarkey about how while they're London 2012 games they're for the "whole of the UK" when in reality they're funded by the rest of the UK and based mainly in London.

Not that these games and LOCOG aren't starting to turn me into a bitter twisted cynic or anything :-).. and some would argue about the "Start"

 

[threebikesmcginty]

TBM, my shambles comment was aimed at the possibility of Box Hill being closed off to spectators.

Sorry Paulus, should have read the posts a bit more carefully.

 

[Norm]

I don't wish to appear wise after the event, but from the first moment I heard that we'd been awarded the olympics back in 2005 I suspected it would turn into a laughable farce. So far my suspicions seem to have been confirmed. When did we stop being able to do this sort of stuff?

I reckon you are not being wise after the event, but you might be allowing your preconceptions to colour your opinion on what is actually happening.

The facilities are ready ahead of time, the tickets have been over-subscribed, there were 250,000 volunteers for 70,000 places... etc

I'm not seeing much of a laughable farce.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I reckon you are not being wise after the event ...

Subtly put.

OK, maybe "laughable farce" is a bit strong. But I can't understand why such a ludicrously complex ticket supply system has been devised. And there's no denying that the whole thing has cost us far more than it should have. At least as far as I know.

 

[philipbh]

But I can't understand why such a ludicrously complex ticket supply system has been devised.

Doesn't it ensure that all * the tickets are sold?

(* on a recent TV report all seemed to be 80% - with the 20% of "unsold" tickets being made available for purchase nearer to the event)

 

[Norm]

Subtly put.

I didn't think it would be lost.

OK, maybe "laughable farce" is a bit strong. But I can't understand why such a ludicrously complex ticket supply system has been devised. And there's no denying that the whole thing has cost us far more than it should have. At least as far as I know.

I know and (as a purchaser) agree that it's pretty weird to expect people to stump up for so many tickets that they'll be in trouble if they get them all.

However, it was a good way of maximising the ticket sales and, for all lofty goals of an Olympian, that was pretty key for the organisers.

 

[philk56]

I don't have a major issue with not receiving anything but I do think that they should have stated how many tickets were available at each price range for each event. This would have enabled people to make a more informed choice. I can't think of any reason why they didn't apart from being scared to show how few were probably actually available at the lower prices. There also perhaps should have been a upper limit per applicant, to allow for a wider distribution.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

I don't have a major issue with not receiving anything but I do think that they should have stated how many tickets were available at each price range for each event. This would have enabled people to make a more informed choice.

I would agree with that.

 

[Archie_tect]

Wonder how they allocate the free tickets for celebrities and 'worthies' + how do they assign good/ bad seat locations to tickets or is it a free for all for who sits where on the day?

Will dip into the BBC coverage from a comfy chair!