250,000 people miss out on Olympic tickets altogether!

[willyfantastic]

dont think i got anything, went for tennis and football (earlier stages). compared to the wolrd cup ballot where i applied for every group game in cape town and got all but 1 (the england game) and a 2nd round game (which i got too) seems a bit weird. i can only assume that far more people went in for the olympics ballot than the world cup ballot?

 

[drew]

I didn't see that, but unless there are some special circumstances that is obscene. This, according to Lord Coe for the last decade, is supposed to be an inclusive event. It's easy to see it with hindsight (actually not just with hindsight), but applications should have been capped at £500/1,000. I can't believe the ethos behind the ticketing strategy was to the let only those with a £15k limit on their credit card have a realistic chance of getting any tickets, and screw the rest. Sadly we'll never know the exact mechanics behind this 'random ballot'.

The needn't have capped the applications, just got you to prioritise so that when you get tickets for one of your events, you don't get any of the others unless they are under subscribed. You could of course have a situation where the 250k people applied for only two events and therefore they are almost certain to miss out bearing in mind the capacity of the arenas.

I applied for two events, final night of athletics and the final of Rebecca Adlingtons main event, 800m freestyle. I got 50% of what I applied for which is the swimming. Cost is £285 for three of us and we get to see 5 races. Lot of dosh but the chance won't come around again. As for the comment by someone that tickets should only go to UK households, how daft is that. This is a world event and therefore a percentage of tickets are available to the rest of the world. How would we feel if in the world cup tickets were only sold to the local population. On the basis that Fifa will never give England the world cup to host that would mean no one would see England play (not always a bad idea!!)..

As for the guy that got £11k of tickets, we don't know exactly how many he applied for. Yes he might have asked for £36k worth but I bet he wasn't after the £40 cheap seats. If the seats he applied for were the top price then he might only have applied for as many events as someone who was prepared to spend a total of £3.5k for tickets at £40 each!!!

I do believe the system could have been better by prioritising your application but even then there would be people that missed out. No one can say who is more deserving and to complain that the rich had a better chance is ridiculous. That is true in anything. I would like the benefits of the 1901 club but I can't afford or justify those prices to watch football.

 

[Wozza]

Like you, I've done the World Cup ballots and had some luck in the past. I knew you would have an exponentially better chance if you went for the most expensive seats at the Olympics, but I just couldn't do that this year. Ironically it could prove the only 1/2 things I did get were for the seats that weren't the cheapest price, done only for that reason.

Yeah, I've always got lucky with football tournaments. Mustn't grumble.

I'm sure you'll be flown around the world when snooker is added to future Games.

 

[drew]

There is also a lot of people moaning about getting nothing before the second tranche of tickets are released. Yes, you won't get the blue riband events but you may get to see other sports and, as you didn't get any in the first batch you will be ahead of those that did. Not the greatest compensation but let's see how many of those 250k get tickets second time around.

 

[Robbie G]

Got none of the tickets I applied for.

 

[Easy 10]

Stands to reason that those people prepared to potentially commit themselves to thousands and thousands of pounds worth of tickets had a far greater chance of getting them than those (like me) who were only prepared to commit to a few hundred quids worth. Yes, I wanted to go, but no way was I going to risk getting humped by a bill running into thousands.

Just a shame that to have any real chance, you really did have to be prepared to stump up an absolutely enormous amount of money. That is NOT the most inclusive way of making it available to everyone, I don't care what Lord Coe says.

 

[Bean]

I personally didn't apply for any as I didn't think I'd get any. However my friend got some quarter final football tickets for my friends and me so atleast I have one. It is quite disappointing that I have one ticket yet live so close to the site.

 

[Bozza]

It is quite disappointing that I have one ticket yet live so close to the site.

Maybe, just maybe, you should have applied then.

I'm not sure "I didn't apply and didn't get a single ticket" is going to stack up very well to be honest.

 

[Gazwag]

What annoys me most is when all of the so called sporting celebrities get there comps in the prime seats. You can guarantee people like Flintoff, Poulter etc who got their freebees to the champions league final will get seats right on the finish line.

 

[itszamora]

There is also a lot of people moaning about getting nothing before the second tranche of tickets are released. Yes, you won't get the blue riband events but you may get to see other sports and, as you didn't get any in the first batch you will be ahead of those that did. Not the greatest compensation but let's see how many of those 250k get tickets second time around.

This is a fair point, although as I applied for basketball and handball preliminaries I'm somewhat surprised to seemingly have not got anything first time around.

 

[zeetha]

In case anyone is interested, the Guardian is running a survey of what people applied for and what they got to try :

Olympic tickets: How successful were you in your application? | Steve Busfield and James Ball | Sport | guardian.co.uk

 

[robbie c]

Find it difficult to believe only 250k out of 1.8m missed out. I applied for £5600 got £116 (2%). I know 4 people that applied for £3 - 5k and got nothing. I think big applications were rejected or given low priority. Aside of that I know of no one who has got any at all? Is Sepp Blatter in charge?

sepp got his tickets for free! [ he is an IOC member unbelievable!]

 

[black & white seagull]

Bradley Wiggins tweeted this morning that his family failed to get tickets for the men's team pursuit, so his kids will be watching their dad on the TV!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Girl I know appplied for £2000 worth of tickets and got £80 allocation!

 

[sully]

Looks like we got nothing too.

We could only afford the risk of a couple of events and wanted to take my kids to see some trampolining, as it's something they enjoy. Can't remember what else I went for, but don't think it was anything that I thought would be popular.

Hey-ho!

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Stands to reason that those people prepared to potentially commit themselves to thousands and thousands of pounds worth of tickets had a far greater chance of getting them than those (like me) who were only prepared to commit to a few hundred quids worth. Yes, I wanted to go, but no way was I going to risk getting humped by a bill running into thousands.

Just a shame that to have any real chance, you really did have to be prepared to stump up an absolutely enormous amount of money. That is NOT the most inclusive way of making it available to everyone, I don't care what Lord Coe says.

this

 

[Anchorman]

Has anyone here applied for Athletics morning tickets and been unsuccessful? I applied for 2 different days for morning prelims and the evenings. I've got both mornings but neither evening. When I applied I half expected this to happen as my memory of watching previous Games is one of seeing a half full stadium for the morning qualifying events. So am wondering if I've been lucky or the morning events have not sold out?

 

[Tooting Gull]

Yeah, I've always got lucky with football tournaments. Mustn't grumble.

I'm sure you'll be flown around the world when snooker is added to future Games.

Less chance than darts! There is a 'World Cup' of sorts in Bangkok in July though...

 

[black & white seagull]

It says on the site that payment is taken up until 10 June. Is it just that 99.9% of payments have already been taken...?

Official website for London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games tickets

 

[Gazwag]

It says on the site that payment is taken up until 10 June. Is it just that 99.9% of payments have already been taken...?

Official website for London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games tickets

I believe they put 10th June as the last 10 days is for the people who have been allocated tickets but had their payment declined to sort their account out