Olympic Ticket Allocation

[fangio]

I am getting pretty fed up with the London Assembly playing politics over the ticket allocations. From my point of view if LOCOG has made 75% of all tickets available to the British Public (and I mean available whcih with so many tickets left to sell includes those tickets) then that is what they promised. If the London Assembly were stupid enough to think that meant 75% of tickets in every session of every sport they deserve to be voted out next election. They seem to want a load of information about the tickets sold already that they have already made their minds up about. It appears they want to say "look there are not 75% for the biggest attractions" and? What made you think there would be? What did you think the corporate sponsors were paying millions for, 5,000 tickets to watch the marathon on the streets? I understand the politicians desire to score cheap points, but I find it slightly irksome that they are meant to be intelligent people and therefore will have known all along that 75% of the 100m final tickets would not be the amount available to the public to buy directly yet still they want to play politics with the Olympics.

[javman]

That's an interesting point Fangio. The point I feel is imortant is understanding who the Olympics are for. Is it an opportunity for the UK taxpayer to see a once in a life time sporting event or is it for the books to be balanced, with the help of ticket sales and corporate sponsorship.

I fear that the answer is not as straight forward as many would probably hope or even think. In such a massive event there are many competing priorities and when you throw politics into the equation, plus a world economy that is quite frankly buggered then you have an event that is far too complex and unwieldy to even get any straight answers out of. To be honest good luck to Lord Coe and his team. They have a a massive job on their hands and I certainly wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

No doubt the games will be a success, and I can see the GB medal tally being very healthy. They key for me though is trying to maintain the momentum and provide some form of legacy for sport across the country. An review by the BBC the other night on Sydney's legacy was very linteresting. It appears they didn't have a plan post Olympics and it took some time to get their legacy on track. But they have shown it can be done, it just requires some focus, effort and planning. I haven't seen any plans by UK plc on legacy, but then again I really haven't been looking for it; perhaps that in itself is the problem. Legacy should be in train now with some clear vision being articulated by the various sports governing bodies.

Come October it will be interesting to see how the various sports shake out. With no doubt a plethora of sports coaching talent moving to the next Olympics gravy train, I wonder how our sport in particular will reconfigure, because I really think it will need to. I struggle to see how we will still see the same amount of investment and therefore the current coaching crop are unlikely to remain (especially if the rumours of foreign event coaches being paid £100k are true). So interesting times ahead. Do I think that UKA are planning for next year, nope I don't, I fear they may just lurch into 2013 basking in the glory of our gold medallists. Cynical without a doubt, but I haven't seen any indication of their planning for post Olympics.

[boysen]

If, as I suspect, the GOLD medals are very,very few then there will be little boast about. Come September will the last gravy trainer turn the lights out. Somehow however the distant World Champs must be used as a bridge to be built on.

[andy788]

I have been quite upset with the ticket situation of these Olympics. It has been nearly impossible for me to get a ticket, and I have been trying to get one for quite some time. I have a dear friend that is competing in track and field tomorrow, and it looks like I will not be able to get a ticket. I am very wary of dealing with scalpers because they are a rip off and I do not want to deal with getting ripped off or possibly buying a fake ticket. I was recently attending some Weddings Las Vegas, and I scalped fake tickets on the Las Vegas Strip, and it was the worst thing ever. I really do not want this to happen to me if I get tickets at the Olympics. It was also very disappointing to see that there were tons of empty seats at some events even though the events were technically sold out. Does anyone know how I can get a ticket for track and field last minute? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Neil Harris]

Try the Olympic Ticket website, there were tickets for tonight's session for sale about 15 minutes ago, alas although I managed to reserve one, it had gone before I could purchase. Tomorrow's surplace should appear sometime today or early tomorrow. You pick up your ticket at the park...in long queu from what I saw yesterday..