Normally, I’d like to think I’m not one to be taken in by hype. However, in the case of next year’s Games being in my “home” country, I do think I’ve probably fallen for the argument that it’s the proverbial once-in-a-lifetime opportunity etc. As a consequence, I had decided soon after the venue was confirmed that I would just have to take my daughters to London to see at least one event.
And then they announced their cockamamy ticket sales plans . . . truly a WTF moment if ever there was one!!
Having eventually calmed down, I figured, never mind: it’s gotta be done. So, in spite of my distaste at the STUPID system they put in place to buy them, I put in for over £350-worth of tickets across four events in three locations.
As the allocation, and more importantly, the LACK of information about same didn’t emerge, I got more and more angry. I have to say, the words “piss-up” and “brewery” are increasingly lodged in my brain over this, and the level of officialdom defiance in the face of overwhelming evidence of incompetence makes Cnut look like a wimp.
Well, finally, some information is getting out. Am I happy? Am I f***! I’m sure the UK residents amongst you will have seen the stats last week: 1.9million applied for 20million tickets – only 700,000 got anything. A fair system? MY ARSE!! Just look at the profiteers who already seem to have more tickets than they can shake a stick at. The 1.2million unsuccessful applicants get a second shot at the end of this week, using a different, and EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS application process. Pound gets you a penny, the system crashes by 0605hrs Friday morning.
Well, I won’t be getting up to join that exercise in futility . . . because I’m not allowed to!!!! Why not? Because I got an email “congratulating” me on securing my tickets … to the Women’s Football Bronze Medal playoff game . . . in Coventry. Oh, and of course, they haven’t told me those are the tickets I’ve got: I had to work that out for myself from the amount of money taken from my account.
**speechless**
Now don’t get me wrong, I did put in for those tickets, but in truth, only as a kind of ‘control’ purchase: that event was never gonna sell out in a million years, so I figured I’d get a feel for what was happening in my [COMPULSORY] Visa account when I saw the money for that disappear – a full sixteen months before the event, let’s not forget. Had I known getting those would deny me a second go at getting anything else, I wouldn’t have done it. DarceysSis is at the age where going to London to see part of the Games next year was causing almost as much excitement as our Disney trip a couple of years back. If I could have got hold of Seb Coe (preferably by the throat) when I had to explain to tearful Daughter#1 that we won’t be going to London to see anything next year, I’d have throttled the git!!
Has anyone else looked at the spreadsheet of what tickets are left? It’s a joke. How many ten and six-year old girls will want to sit through Basketball preliminaries, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Synchronised Swimming or the Walking Race? And that’s now. By the time I get my next go, most of those tickets will have been snapped up by the scrambling desperate parents who got NOTHING in Rd1.
And another thing: talking of parents – the scheme for under-16s to “pay your age” for a ticket sounded good, didn’t it? Yeah, in theory. Having asked around, I cannot find even ONE successful child-price ticket purchase ANYWHERE! NOT BLOODY ONE! The next official from the BOA-or-whoever who tries to tell me that the allocation ballot was random and fair will be roundly laughed at … just before I punch their lights out. Unless of course, any of you lot tell me you’ve secured finals/medal-ceremony tickets for a fiver for your infants? No? Thought not.
So, apart from having a rant, why am I posting this? Well, I want to know: is any ‘Spiller planning on going to the Games? Did you get tickets? How are you thinking of organizing your travel and accommodation? . . . And . . . does anyone want to come to the Women’s Football Bronze Medal playoff match with me in Coventry on 9th Aug? I’ve got three spares ………………………..
Lordy. It’s been held in my country at least four times that i remember. I’m a huge fan of the winter sports Olympics, and not so much of summer. In high school years when a friend and i found that the 1980 winter Olympics were going to be held at Lake Placid, which isn’t so far away, we vowed to go. Of course we never made it. And at this point in time i can’t imagine the hassle, and money, involved being anywhere close to worth it. I really do think it’s better on TV now.
I wish you and the girls the best of luck and hope you have a wonderful time despite the cock ups.
Well I’m a definite ‘yes’ for those Women’s Football tickets – I’ll even pay you face value for them!!!
Cheers, Toffee.
I have four tickets, and I will be going myself. Plan A was for the family to go, but none of the others are showing any enthusiasm. These tickets are all the same price (£30 each), so I can allocate them as I please, and at the moment, Plan B would be to keep two (still hoping Jess will change her mind once the tournament starts) and sell two.
In line with Lord Cock (silent ‘ck’, natch) ‘s ridiculous mutation of 1st-come-1st-served, your application has been allocated a numbered slip with a timestamp on it, but we won’t tell you if you’ve “won” (I hate the word now in that context) for yonks. In the meantime, send me your credit card number, the deeds to your house, an arm, a leg, and the soul of your youngest child ….
By the way, I applied for loads and got … zip, nada, nicks, zilch, squat-diddly …
Do you reckon we could apply, under the Freedom Of Information Act, to be told who DID get all those tickets? Particularly how many ‘pay-your-child’s-age’ ones actually made it through? I wonder if Mark Thomas is planning a piece on this subject … Mitch?
So much wrong with the Olympics, it’s difficult to know where to start: politics, corruption, factory farming of small children, drugs, professionals at expense of amateurs, incompetence, synchronized swimming…
Always watch along with everyone else.
Sorry that your girls are disappointed.
I really think I did not understand fully, but I am sorry your girls will be disappointed.
I do hope they can see something and enjoy it after all.
My apologies, Sakura, I can see how my language would confuse. But I didn’t want to draw any legal attention to my ranting, so have avoided actually naming next year’s event (you know, happens every four years? Beijing last time.) in the thread.
Sorry for you and the girls, obviously but, I have to say, unsurprised.
What’s the betting that the top events will see stadia full of fat coporate sh*ts who disappear to the hospitality tents almost as soon as they arrive ( as per “Wembley”).
Coe and co are a disgrace, not least because they still try to justify what was pretty obviously a pre-planned “cock-up”.
Absolutely, pairubu.
Just simple arithmetic waves a red flag -
20,000,000 tickets ÷ 700,000 “successful” applicants = 29 tickets EACH, ON AVERAGE. Even at a minimum cost of £20 for the cheap seats, that means the average spend is going to be over £600. There is NO WAY you are going to convince me that Joe Public applied for so many tickets that after the ballot they’re still spending six hundred quid EACH.
Therefore, touts and corporates. Must be.
Greco-Roman wrestling, you say. Mm… Bad luck, DsD. I’m afraid I’m an Olympics miseryguts and am rather dreading the city being overrun next summer. I’m sure the views will be better on the telly anyway…
HOUSE SWAP!!
Oh, you don’t live in Coventry.
Sorry, forget I said anything.
PLEASE DON’T SEND ME TO COVENTRY (literally or otherwise)!
PREDICTION. Most of the gold medals will be won by Nike. Close for second between Reebock and Adidas.
If these companies want to have their corporate jollies and watch people running around and throwing things, they, plus the companies who make the performance enhancing drugs and thereby make vast profits should fekkin well pay for it, not Londoners or that tax on the poor which is the National Lottery.
I applied and got nothing.
Great to know that when the Games finally comes to the UK we get a real opportunity to embrace it. I’ll really enjoy seeing the likes of Sepp Blatter in the crowd enjoying whatever event he chooses to attend while watching it on my television. Organisers, governments, corporate sponsors, overhyped media – they certainly know how to take the romance out of these big events don’t they?
and another thing, I never really liked Seb Coe anyway. Steve Ovett was miles better than him – if he’d organised it I know I’d have been there for the one hundred metre final instead of some businessman in a suit or the head of some corrupt discredited worldwide money making machine. BRING BACK OVETT!! I L Y x
Pardon me if I’m prying too much, vanwolf, but did any of your application include ‘pay-your-age’ places for kids? I’m getting a real bee in my bonnet now about this one …
No, didn’t apply for them, just adult tickets.
Be nice if they could apologise for how crap they are rather than just arrogantly pretending everything is how it should be.
Ta, vanwolf. And at last, someone’s found some music suitable to add to this thread. Funnily enough, I’ve thought of one myself now – yours is better, but I may go back and insert mine atop.
Sometimes I am soooo glad that I am not a sports fan.
Much sympathy for you and your girls, DsD, and for anyone else fuming at the inadequacy of the system. I know someone who got tickets to the sailing, which they seemed to be happy about. I sort of imagine this to be a Cowes-like event, where (I also imagine) the dockside audience watches a mass of besailed pointy things jostle their way out of the harbour and off… out of sight. Maybe it’s better than that, in both cases.
Incidentally, I am such an antifan that I will be doing my extreme best to avoid all televised footage, too. The hills may beckon…
I agree with your imagined scenario, Zalamanda, which is why I haven’t even considered applying for sailing tickets. Similar with things like the rowing, which is a mile long straight course. Unless the stands are on motorised castors, powered to keep pace with the race, I cannot think of anything more boring for itchy-bottomed kids, can you?
Great post DsD, I can understand your anger and frustration. It is obvious that there will be advertisments in the coming months ( I think they have already started in Germany ), for packages offering travel, accomodation and front row seats to anyone who can pay ££££thousands for the privilage.
Coe and his cohorts have given the impression that ALL of the tickets are available to UK citizens. I don’t know how many countries are involved in these games, but all of them have allocations for their own supporters,followers and hangers on. Just like the FA Cup, the real fans don’t stand an earthly.
DsD, I think your best bet is to get some medical qualifications and attend as a doctor (that’s how the only person I know who has ever been to any Olympics managed it)! Failing that, I remember glancing at a Grauniad blog telling you how to buy from other European countries – don’t know if that’d be any good to you….
I’m with Amy on this, I can never get my fill of Winter Olympics on the telly – don’t want to be there in person, I bloody hate snow & ice; but at home with a cuppa and my feet up and some quality knitting time, I really don’t mind watching the circus.
Erm, sshhhh, debby, don’t want anyone to join the dots and red-ink my application: you’re closer to the mark than you know!!!
But that isn’t going to get my kids there, is it?
And re other countries, apparently UK applications have already crashed the French website, so many frustrated Brits have already tried that one.
Incidentally, I saw “Lord” Coe wandering through Canary Wharf (unaccosted) the other week. Shall I clip him round the ear next time?
Yeah, bish you can **** *** **** *** ****** from me, and when he comes round, we’ll have him taped to a chair in front of an audience of 1.2million disgruntled punters!
Much sympathy from someone who wouldn’t touch the event with a bargepole (I’m with Debby on the joys of watching the Biathlon at home with a mug of mulled wine). As far as I’m concerned it’s just one more bit of evidence of how the world is run entirely for the benefit of a tiny wealthy minority – who are increasingly unashamed and not bothering to hide their dominance. Sooner or later, surely, this sort of thing is going to be the last straw even for the supine British. (Not meaning you in particular, DsD…).
No, I accept the charge, Prof. For most of my early adult life I tried to live and let live. But I find I’m getting angrier as I get older, and your central point there is spot on. FIFA and F1 on the sporting side; our bankers and MPs domestically; US & UK warmongering; Russian & African & Arab corruption; the rich elite are past caring whether they are exposed.
Maybe it’s because I’m a parent now, and am subconsciously worrying about how my daughters will live in an increasingly screwed-up world, but . . .
I never thought I’d say it, but Vive la Révolution!
So you read that copy of “Socialist Review” I left in your car?
I left it somewhere, Mitch. Can’t remember where now, but it was somewhere where it’d cause a stir. . . . nope, it’s gone. If I remember, I’ll tell you.
I tried to get football in Manchester but wasn’t one of the ‘lucky’ ones. Like you DsD, I saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity for the kids. My Dad took us to see a football prelim game at the Montreal Olympics and obviously I still remember it. (Can’t remember game details – it was North vs South Korea)
Sorry to hear that, DsD.
Um, have I mentioned that I’ve got Centre Court tickets for Wimbledon on Friday?
Sympathies, DsD …
Sympathies too, DsD.
sadly that’s modern commercialisation of sport, isn’t it.
have a lot of respect for the Women’s Football – reading the England teams article in part 2 of the paper brings home the idiocy of the Mens game – they are paid £16,000 a year and most have second jobs to keep afloat but they play for the passion – some men are getting that A WEEK in the 2nd tier – how does that relate to the values I want to teach my kids – shocking…(not as sick as £125,000 A WEEK – how can a world make that happen?)
The joy of Norwich promotion pretty much disappears with being priced out of games – I can only afford to take my boy and dad to a few games a season – but next year that wont be possible.. (not the prices here) but London matches that we meet up for are right out of the price range. *sigh*
As I didn’t really play on RR this week, Shane, you can have my Dond Of The Week for that comment right there.