The Olympics..........games for the people? Really?

[tubaman]

That's easy to say with hindsight but imagine if punters were just limited to tickets for two events and there wasn't the level of interest - it would have been decried as a flop. As someone said earlier, the demand for tickets was not expected. I agree that there are too many tickets for sponsors and not enough for punters but that's often the case in sport these days. I think LOCOG did a reasonable job in allocating them fairly. I'm miffed that I didn't get fencing tickets but am going to the BMX, which my kids really wanted to go to, and to women's football semi-final so am not too unhappy. And LOCOG did allow people who had been unsuccessful twice to have first crack at the next batch of tickets, which is how I'd got BMX. There aren't many bods who have been unlucky three times.[/QUOTE]

Hindsight shouldn't be an issue for such a large national event. It is called PLANNING.

As for taking people's hand me down, hand me down tickets and being grateful! I suppose I am in a large minority of people who have attended and supported national athletics events before the build up to the Olympics started so being offered handball or BMX tickets that somebody else didn't want feels a bit of an insult.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Still a lot of rubbish said about the whole thing. I got tix in first round, however girlfriend didn't. In the phase just closed, right up to the deadline there were handball and hockey tickets still available for example. We've got seats for £40 and £20 (ooh shockingly expensive and includes a travelcard zone 1-9),both arenas in the olympic park. Going to sample the atmosphere, see the other arenas/stadium in daylight and lit up at night, choose a team to support even if it's Trinidad vs kuwait and go with optimism and excitement. What's not to like?

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

That's easy to say with hindsight but imagine if punters were just limited to tickets for two events and there wasn't the level of interest - it would have been decried as a flop. As someone said earlier, the demand for tickets was not expected. I agree that there are too many tickets for sponsors and not enough for punters but that's often the case in sport these days. I think LOCOG did a reasonable job in allocating them fairly. I'm miffed that I didn't get fencing tickets but am going to the BMX, which my kids really wanted to go to, and to women's football semi-final so am not too unhappy. And LOCOG did allow people who had been unsuccessful twice to have first crack at the next batch of tickets, which is how I'd got BMX. There aren't many bods who have been unlucky three times.

Hindsight shouldn't be an issue for such a large national event. It is called PLANNING.

As for taking people's hand me down, hand me down tickets and being grateful! I suppose I am in a large minority of people who have attended and supported national athletics events before the build up to the Olympics started so being offered handball or BMX tickets that somebody else didn't want feels a bit of an insult.[/QUOTE]

They weren't hand me downs but the next round of tickets. Plenty of people who missed out in the first two rounds got tickets for top events eg athletics.

You just had to try to get them rather than expect them to be handed on a plate to you.

 

[Jello]

hope this isn't a glimpse of things to come we can't even count!
Hurdles error mars Jessica Ennis victory

 

[Arthur]

Get with it Arthur , it won't be happening here again in your lifetime.

Thank f*** for that! It's a complete waste of time and money!

 

[goldstone]

Totally agree with this, how many of those with tickets for the fencing or swimming have actually ever taken any interest in these sports before the Olympics came to town. In my opinion the Olympics is full of minority sports that are better to be actually playing/doing then watching. I can't remember looking forward to a big Judo meet or needing to rush down to the sea to see a load of rich boys and girls play with the yachts. The only good thing about the whole thing is it has regenerated a part of London that was a shit hole, but no doubt that will fall into rack and ruin once no one can be bothered with the various arenas that have been built after the carnival has left town!
Some may think this is small minded but that is my opinion and I have nothing against anyone who has the total opposite jingoistic opinion.

So true. I am an Olympics curmudgeon ... and proud of it.

And as for the flame nonsense .... Not sure how the press are going to continue to report this as a story ... "and the bunch of blokes and women carrying a flaming torch today ran through xxx while local people cheeered from the roadside" .... "and the blokes and women carrying a flaming torch today ran through yyy while local people .... yawn"

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Most of the people 'lucky' in the ballot will find they've blown their money. They won't actually be watching the event they've paid stupid money to see, they'll all be far too busy recording it through a shitty two inch iphone screen so they they can upload a shitty blurred video onto youtube, same as everybody else in the stadium. The smart people will be watching the event at home through a giant f***-off flatscreen telly

 

[withdeanwombat]

I'll watch some of the athletics on telly,perhaps,but everything else.........no,thanks.

But good luck to you if you have tickets for something,and enjoy.It certainly won't be back here for many a long year,by which time Coe & co might have sorted the ticketing "issues".

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Paralympic tickets back on sale today, including some for the frankly brutal Wheelchair Rugby.

 

[cunning fergus]

Paralympic tickets back on sale today, including some for the frankly brutal Wheelchair Rugby.

Yeah its f***ing brilliant, I love seeing quadriplegics being spilled out of their chairs and spinning round on the floor like human turtles being tipped onto their backs...................that said wheelchair rugby has got a long way to go though before its embraced as truly a global paralympian sport, as only the western quadriplegics can afford the fancy chairs they have to use................which is a teeny bit racist.

The spectacle of paralympian athletes with cerebal palsy, spina bifida and stroke induced paralysis all charging round a track against each other is far more egalitarian...................I f***ing love the paralympics!

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Yeah its f***ing brilliant, I love seeing quadriplegics being spilled out of their chairs and spinning round on the floor like human turtles being tipped onto their backs...................that said wheelchair rugby has got a long way to go though before its embraced as truly a global paralympian sport, as only the western quadriplegics can afford the fancy chairs they have to use................which is a teeny bit racist.

The spectacle of paralympian athletes with cerebal palsy, spina bifida and stroke induced paralysis all charging round a track against each other is far more egalitarian...................I f***ing love the paralympics!

Eh. Can't see fancy chairs for wheelchair rugby costing more than fancy chairs for wheelchair athletics. If it's racist then the whole Paralympic is racist.

 

[piersa]

Anyone who thinks the ticketing has been done properly is talking out of their teatowel holder.

 

[cunning fergus]

Eh. Can't see fancy chairs for wheelchair rugby costing more than fancy chairs for wheelchair athletics. If it's racist then the whole Paralympic is racist.

That's not my point, such is the technology now being employed in paralymoic wheelchairs it will be the quadriplegics from the rich developed western countries that will prevail in the wheelchair related sport categories.

Paralympians from western counties will be using made to measure, aerodynamically developed, lightweight wheelchairs whilst those from the third world will be lucky to have a shopping trolley. Whether its rugby or racing the rich will trump the poor.........happy to have punt here with you now that the winners of all the wheelchair sports at the games will be 90%+ white westerners?

For some of the other categories this technology can't apply, and so a somalian stroke victim can compete equally against a British dwarf. Just like an Aghani amputee will be able to compete on the same level as a South African amputee............or maybe that's not the best example!

As for those with learning difficulties.............watch out for the Spanish.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Anyone who thinks the ticketing has been done properly is talking out of their teatowel holder.

So then clever clogs, how would you have done it? And do you still think the olympics should be just swimming, athletics and cycling?

 

[loco61]

The tickets were a joke. Basically you needed to be a psychic to buy tickets. My mate put down that he wanted to go to every event not realising they will take the money and that he couldnt choose which ones he was succesful for £1200 pounds later he had 4 tickets.

me no psychick but i ended up with loads of tickets ... all now allocated within the extended family and i cant wait ... i got lucky ... my first two weeks in a row in the UK for 15 years are just round the corner ... as i said i can wait!!

my only regret is that i thought it would coincide with my fourth game at the Amex ..shame ...that will have to wait a month or two longer

 

[loco61]

Most of the people 'lucky' in the ballot will find they've blown their money. They won't actually be watching the event they've paid stupid money to see, they'll all be far too busy recording it through a shitty two inch iphone screen so they they can upload a shitty blurred video onto youtube, same as everybody else in the stadium. The smart people will be watching the event at home through a giant f***-off flatscreen telly

you know nothing ... and what sort of flat screen telly was that again? ps I dont even have a smart phone!

 

[loco61]

I've put my name in the London Marathon ballot for next year, which as always is massively oversubscribed. If I don't get in, I'll be sure to post a thread on here moaning about how shit the organisation is and what a tinpot event it is anyway.

i agree that is shit ! i enter every year and they never want me ... ...

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

That's not my point, such is the technology now being employed in paralymoic wheelchairs it will be the quadriplegics from the rich developed western countries that will prevail in the wheelchair related sport categories.

Paralympians from western counties will be using made to measure, aerodynamically developed, lightweight wheelchairs whilst those from the third world will be lucky to have a shopping trolley. Whether its rugby or racing the rich will trump the poor.........happy to have punt here with you now that the winners of all the wheelchair sports at the games will be 90%+ white westerners?

For some of the other categories this technology can't apply, and so a somalian stroke victim can compete equally against a British dwarf. Just like an Aghani amputee will be able to compete on the same level as a South African amputee............or maybe that's not the best example!

As for those with learning difficulties.............watch out for the Spanish.

But that wasn't the point you were making. Your post seemed to be saying that it paraathletics was somehow fairer than wheelchair rugby?

I do agree with your point though, but only by showcasing how great Paralympic sport can be will you encourage emerging nations to invest in it sufficiently.

 

[cunning fergus]

But that wasn't the point you were making. Your post seemed to be saying that it paraathletics was somehow fairer than wheelchair rugby?

I do agree with your point though, but only by showcasing how great Paralympic sport can be will you encourage emerging nations to invest in it sufficiently.

That is my point............the wheelchair sport winners will be predominantly white westerners, using wheelchairs that will have a specification a poor wheelchair bound African could only dream of...........in fact they will probably not even be competing. This technological arms race (no pun intended) is hardly egalitarian is it?

I am not so sure countries like Chad and Ethiopia will be ploughing money into paralympic sports, while they have kids starving, but then again may Bono could bung them a few quid from his facebook windfall or tax havens.

Threfore the non wheelchair disabled sports at least offer a more prima facie fair competition.........although that does not apply to the sports including those with the carbon fibre blades, or those feigning deafness, blindness, learning difficulties or depression (eg the Spanish Basketball team).

I am sure the whole will be f***ing great!

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Olympics tickets - What's left

http://www.london2012.com/mm/Document/Documents/General/01/25/60/14/LOC2011PUB0033OlympicGamesticketavailabilityguideV3_Neutral.pdf

On general sale tomorrow from 11am.