Olympic stadium

[Easy 10]

Wrong i'm afraid. Anyone that succesfully won a ticket had their accounts debited for the money those tickets cost. Are you saying that LOCOG should have said to the public to bid for as much as you want even if you can't afford it?

Again, how would you have done it?

I've said this before. I'd have ditched internet sales for the bulk of the tickets, and set up ticket booths in the major cities around the UK. Get down to some good old-fashioned QUEUING. The whole thing could have been set up as a national event in itself, with promo's going on around the sales booths, food, entertainment, atheletes visiting, it would've been brilliant. Advertise what tickets are going on sale and when, and let the masses flock and choose from there.

The reason the online ticket sales was such a shambles was because it was too frigging easy for people to log on, point and click on this, that and the other whether they were bothered about that event or not. It was inevitably going to be oversubscribed by the "might as well" brigade. If people had to get up of their arses, get motivated and go and actually QUEUE for the tickets they wanted then they'll have fully deserved them. Instead, you've got thousands of people who've probably dipped out on what they REALLY wanted to see, and ended up with tickets they weren't really bothered about.

There was a world before the internet where folk would routinely go and queue for tickets. Seems most people are just too lazy now.

 

[Mr Blobby]

Eh? I'm sure they made it smaller, not bigger?

If you read wikipedia rubbish then you would think that, but no the original stadium was 38,000 its now 48,000

City of Manchester Stadium
The City of Manchester Stadium is located at the centre of Sportcity in the Eastlands area of the town. It cost some £90 million to construct and has seating for 38,000 people. It was designed to provide a backdrop to the Commonwealth Games, and it was here that the Opening and Closing Ceremonies took place, attended by Her Majesty the Queen. The entire Athletics programme and the Rugby 7's competition took place here. The stadium has subsequently become the new home of Manchester City Football Club since 2003.
Situated within 2 miles of the Games Village, hotels and the Media Centre. The stadium forms the centrepiece of an extensive sports complex, now known as Sportcity, which also includes the National Cycling Centre, Squash and Table Tennis centres. Around £170 million was provided by Manchester City Council, the Sport England Lottery Fund and the various commercial sponsors.
Now the Etihad Stadium and home to manchester City Football Club.

 

[Dr Q]

Looking forward to it, good to see the stadium being used, although still sounds like theres some work to do.

Don't have any gripes about the ticketing process other than teh fact that they won't let me change my address. i've just moved, but after the cut off for address changes, so I was advised when I phoned to have Royal Mail redirection in place!! We have that, but its a bit hit and miss at times, and I can see my ticket (Athletics) ending up in the wrong hands!!!

 

[Bold Seagull]

its called freedom of speech

So it's not freedom of speech for [MENTION=268]Superphil[/MENTION] to ask you a question, quite politely actually which you've failed to answer? If you don't give a toss, why post? It's a simple enough question, your first post is not freedom of speech it's just a contradiction!

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I've said this before. I'd have ditched internet sales for the bulk of the tickets, and set up ticket booths in the major cities around the UK. Get down to some good old-fashioned QUEUING. The whole thing could have been set up as a national event in itself, with promo's going on around the sales booths, food, entertainment, atheletes visiting, it would've been brilliant. Advertise what tickets are going on sale and when, and let the masses flock and choose from there.

The reason the online ticket sales was such a shambles was because it was too frigging easy for people to log on, point and click on this, that and the other whether they were bothered about that event or not. It was inevitably going to be oversubscribed by the "might as well" brigade. If people had to get up of their arses, get motivated and go and actually QUEUE for the tickets they wanted then they'll have fully deserved them. Instead, you've got thousands of people who've probably dipped out on what they REALLY wanted to see, and ended up with tickets they weren't really bothered about.

There was a world before the internet where folk would routinely go and queue for tickets. Seems most people are just too lazy now.

That is a nice idea. Would have been ruined by the touts though acting like Fagins and paying hordes of juveniles to get in the queues early to buy up all the good tickets. It's been good so far to see how few stories there has been about Olympic Games tickets changing hands for many times face value.

 

[Superphil]

That is a nice idea. Would have been ruined by the touts though acting like Fagins and paying hordes of juveniles to get in the queues early to buy up all the good tickets. It's been good so far to see how few stories there has been about Olympic Games tickets changing hands for many times face value.

Psst, Wanna buy two tickets for August 1st, Ricoh arena, football between 2 as yet un-named teams, could be anyone (except team GB*).

*another gripe of mine, they announced that team GB will play group stage games at Mil Stad, Old Trafford and Wembley, but won't say what teams will be playing at the other venues (Hampden, Newcastle, Coventry), why not?

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Psst, Wanna buy two tickets for August 1st, Ricoh arena, football between 2 as yet un-named teams, could be anyone (except team GB*).

*another gripe of mine, they announced that team GB will play group stage games at Mil Stad, Old Trafford and Wembley, but won't say what teams will be playing at the other venues (Hampden, Newcastle, Coventry), why not?

Because they haven't done the draw yet (on 24th April) on the grounds that qualfication isn't finished. You could actually have given your tickets back to LOCOG earlier this year and they would have given you your money back and you might well still be able to do that later this year.

 

[tubaman]

Wrong i'm afraid. Anyone that succesfully won a ticket had their accounts debited for the money those tickets cost. Are you saying that LOCOG should have said to the public to bid for as much as you want even if you can't afford it?

Again, how would you have done it?

Simple. With the over subscription that was always going to happen each application should have been limited to a maximum of about 5 - 10. Then more people would have been given the opportunity of attending the games. It's not exactly rocket science.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Wrong i'm afraid. Anyone that succesfully won a ticket had their accounts debited for the money those tickets cost. Are you saying that LOCOG should have said to the public to bid for as much as you want even if you can't afford it?

Again, how would you have done it?

Simple. With the over subscription that was always going to happen each application should have been limited to a maximum of about 5 - 10. Then more people would have been given the opportunity of attending the games. It's not exactly rocket science.

So how did they know it was going to be so oversubscribed? No games in history has had this much demand.

Even if you had then it wouldn't have helped much. 10 tickets was about the average that people applied for anyway.

 

[Falkor]

Whats pissing me of with the Olympics is the strikes its a joke, don't give them more hours then give the jobs to people that want them and need them that where made redundant by there company's going belly up

 

[clapham_gull]

I think its because the of the massive circumference of the ground, the stands are not massive. For a future athletics stadium or cricket pitch (Essex are bidding to be one of the future users) it would be OK, as a new football stadium, nope IMHO would not work.

When Man City took over the commenwealth stadoum they dug out the original pitch and track and added a new "lower" tier to bring people closer to the new sunken pitch and increase the capacity up from 30,000. Would West Ham want to add to the 80,000 seats?

It wouldn't be 80,000 if the Hammers got hold of it. As soon as the Olympics have finished, the top tiers are coming off - unless something has changed in the design.

From what I read originally it can feasibly be brought down to 20 odd thousand if need be. It was designed like that, a bit lego and a reverse of the Amex. The upper tiers have been designed to be removed.

 

[Weststander]

Went to one of the ramp up event for the Olympic stadium yesterday. Was a good day out helped by the weather!

My opinion of the place, well quite shocked at amount of work to do, place still a massive building site! You have to go through airport style security checks, but after all that they forget to scan my ticket and I just walked in!

The stadium is big, and if West Ham do get it them everyone will be miles from the pitch. Getting to/from the stadium was easy. It was just 20,000 yesterday but walked back to the tube and no queues at all. It was under an hour from Stratford back to three bridges.

Best 100m yesterday was the help for heroes one, 9 members of the armed services who had all lost one or two limbs. These people are amazing, so courageous it was all very humbling. The amount of money raised for people to take part in events was astounding, one school in Newcastle raised £18k so that 8 of them could run 100m on the Olympic track.

Day was finished off with Spellbound doing a 10 minute routine, Paul Potts singing. All in all a good day out and a large chunck of my ticket money went to the NSPCC.

A few pictures from the day

Going by those disappointing pics, glad we didn't get tickets now.

Sydney, Montreal, and Seoul made steep sided atmospheric stadia, that give good viewing for other sports after the Olympics.

Gold & Sullivan will give WHU a souless non-footballing arena, if they move.

What a big letdown from the Blair-Brown-Jowells-Coe team.

 

[Mutts Nuts]

Went to one of the ramp up event for the Olympic stadium yesterday. Was a good day out helped by the weather!

My opinion of the place, well quite shocked at amount of work to do, place still a massive building site! You have to go through airport style security checks, but after all that they forget to scan my ticket and I just walked in!

The stadium is big, and if West Ham do get it them everyone will be miles from the pitch. Getting to/from the stadium was easy. It was just 20,000 yesterday but walked back to the tube and no queues at all. It was under an hour from Stratford back to three bridges.

Best 100m yesterday was the help for heroes one, 9 members of the armed services who had all lost one or two limbs. These people are amazing, so courageous it was all very humbling. The amount of money raised for people to take part in events was astounding, one school in Newcastle raised £18k so that 8 of them could run 100m on the Olympic track.

Day was finished off with Spellbound doing a 10 minute routine, Paul Potts singing. All in all a good day out and a large chunck of my ticket money went to the NSPCC.

A few pictures from the day

West ham only want it so they can sell upton park to clear massive debts

 

[Weststander]

West ham only want it so they can sell upton park to clear massive debts

Yep, and prevent Spurs getting it, and nick the Leyton O fans catchment over time.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Going by those disappointing pics, glad we didn't get tickets now.

Sydney, Montreal, and Seoul made steep sided atmospheric stadia, that give good viewing for other sports after the Olympics.

Gold & Sullivan will give WHU a souless non-footballing arena, if they move.

What a big letdown from the Blair-Brown-Jowells-Coe team.

But as I've already posted, with Wembley / Twickenham / The O2 / Lords / The Oval / The Emirates / Stamford Bridge / Earls Court why the hell does London need another 80,000 capacity venue. The simple truth is that it doesn't and certainly won't once the Olympics are over.

When Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth games did they suddenly think, " ooooh lets build ourselves another 80,000 venue ", no and for obvious reasons, because they already had one ........