London ticket grumbles seen as price of success - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Complaints over elusive and expensive tickets for the 2012 Olympics are a product of unprecedented demand to see live action from Britons, the man behind the policy said on Monday.
"I'd build a stadium with a million seats because we had more than a million applications to see the opening ceremony and the 100 metres final," Paul Williamson, London 2012 director of ticketing, told the Global Leadership Summit at the London Business School when asked what he would have done differently.
Demand for tickets has far outstripped supply, leading to grumbles from Britons about the initial allocation via online ballot, prices and the number of tickets going to sponsors.
Tickets for the opening ceremony cost from 20.12 pounds ($31.80) to 2,012 pounds ($3,200).
Williamson said London organisers had to market tickets for sports like handball which is a mystery to many people in this country. He said handball and other "challenging sports" like archery, shooting and wrestling would now be played out before full houses.
Athletes could also look forward to having their heats staged in a busy Olympic stadium.
"Morning sessions at the athletics, when the preliminaries are held, were always in a half empty stadium," said Williamson.
"We'll have 60,000 plus in London, so we must have got some of the pricing right. It'll be a different audience from the evenings, more families, but a vibrant atmosphere."
Some of those ticketing grouses were voiced at the conference. Brigitte Ricou-Bellan from online ticket market place StubHub told the conference that her company had surveyed Britons and found dissatisfaction "not just on prices but on delivery of tickets".
However, London organisers won heavyweight support from Michael Payne, former marketing chief for the International Olympic Committee, noting demand for tickets.
"This is viewed internationally as by far the most successful (ticket) marketing programme," Payne told the conference. "It will be the model for Rio (in 2016). The problem is success," he said.
Williamson said a further batch of Games tickets would go on sale on Wednesday and that he expected almost everything to sell out in London.
Tickets for soccer at venues like Newcastle and Glasgow were proving harder to shift, he said.
London organisers had talked of selling excess tickets at booths in the capital before the start of the July 27-August 12 Games but Williamson said he did not expect many tickets to be left over to sell in this way.
($1 = 0.6326 British pounds)
(Reporting by Keith Weir, editing by Justin Palmer)
London 2012 ticket design is unveiled – with high-level security built in - insidethegames.biz
London 2012 ticket design is unveiled – with high-level security built in
By Tom Degun
May 21 - London 2012 has unveiled the design of the Olympic and Paralympic Games tickets with their delivery, along with Games travel cards and spectator guides, set to begin this week.
The tickets (pictured below) have been designed by FutureBrand, part of McCann Worldgroup, and each features the sport pictogram and colour scheme of a specific venue to help spectators find the correct destination.
Each ticket, which have been printed by Weldon, Williams & Lick, a company based in Fort Smith, Arkansas, will be printed with a hologram, a barcode and the name of the booker as well as several other security features to reduce the possibility of counterfeiting.
This will ensure every ticket can be traced to the person who purchased it.
Paralympic Games tickets have gone back on sale today to mark 100 days to go milestone to the Opening Ceremony on August 29 while prices start at just £10 ($16/€12).
Day pass tickets exclusive to the Paralympic Games also offer the chance to see up to five sports in the Olympic Park or ExCeL arena through just one £10 ticket.
Tickets will be made available for the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies and across all sports, and there are still plenty available for athletics in the Olympic Stadium, which has been the biggest selling ticket so far.
There will also be a limited number of tickets available for the Paralympic track cycling in the Velodrome.
London 2012 used the Paralympic milestone day to reiterate the importance of purchasing only from authorised sources.
The majority of Paralympic tickets will be sold via the official London 2012 website which features a full list of authorised ticket resellers.
London 2012 also has a URL checker on the website which will confirm whether any rival site claiming to sell London 2012 tickets is genuine or not.
"With the Olympic Flame now making its journey towards the Olympic Stadium, and with 100 days to go before the Paralympics, I can't remember a more exciting week on the road to London 2012," said London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton.
"It is important now that people keep their tickets in a safe place ready for Games time and to be wary of websites and organisations claiming to have Games tickets to sell.
"In many cases, they simply do not have them to sell and there is a real danger people will end up being out of pocket and missing out on seeing the Games."
He warned purchasers: "If in doubt, check our website and be 100 per cent certain you are buying from an authorised source."
"Genuine tickets will have a number of security features built into them to minimise the risk of counterfeits," said detective superintendent Nick Downing of Operation Podium, the Metropolitan Police team monitoring crime related to London 2012.
He warned the public: "The safest way to ensure that your ticket is genuine is to only buy from an authorised seller which can be found on the London 2012 website.
"If you buy from an unofficial site, you risk paying over the odds for a ticket that may not exist, may not be genuine and you risk not getting to see the Games.
"Your personal details could even be used in other crimes."
Tickets will be available here or by calling 0844 847 2012 while only Visa (debit, credit and prepaid) cards can be used in purchases.
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