The Olympics ticket application process - a rant

I thought it was about time I had a proper rant on my blog, so here are my thoughts on the recent Olympics ticket application process.

As you may or may not know, my little sister is aiming to make the Olympics for the 400m hurdles. At this stage we still don’t know if she’s going to be there, although we are hoping for the best. Aside from achieving the time, she has to stay fit and injury free and in the top three for her event in GB.

Months and months ago, before the application process started, I emailed the ticketing people to ask them what the deal was for families of potential athletes. They said they’d let me know before the application process began, but something would be put in place for families. When they didn’t get back to me I contacted them again. I got the same answer and again nobody has been in touch.

Anyway, in the absence of an answer, I decided to apply for tickets for the 400m hurdles. A few things struck me when I was filling in the application.

• You could only pay with a visa card. I don’t have a visa credit card and I couldn’t afford to put everything on my debit card. Therefore I clicked the option ‘Don’t have a visa card.’ This took me to an option which allowed me to apply for a visa credit card. So, put yourself in even more debt than you already are, in order to pay for Olympics tickets.
• In one of the initial press statements, we were told that tickets would be affordable and for every event there would be a wide range of price options. The cheapest tickets available for the 400m hurdles days were £50, then it jumped steeply. This to me is not a price range which includes everyone.
• At the end of the application form, you were offered the chance to buy souvenirs. So, after potentially spending hundreds of pounds on tickets, they have the cheek to ask you to spend almost a tenner on a keyring!

As I have been unsuccessful in my application, you may just think this is sour grapes on my part. It’s really not. I would have had the same opinions even if I had managed to get my hands on some tickets. My main problem with the whole thing is the fact that it is clearly in favour of people with money. And for all Sebastian Coe etc want to go on about it being the only fair system, there must have been a better way.

I overheard one guy saying that he had applied for £11,000 worth of tickets and had got £9,000 worth. Then on the news, some guy said he had applied for £36,000 worth and had ended up with something like £12,000 worth of tickets. This is the man who really made me angry. When being interviewed he said ‘I don’t know why everyone just didn’t do what I did.’ As if we were all idiots who didn’t understand the process. Oh, yeah, of course, if I’d only applied for £36,000 worth, then I’d definitely have got some tickets. Thanks for pointing that out, you twat. Most people don’t have that sort of money, that’s why!

And how is it fair, that some people have ended up with £11,000 worth of tickets and some people have none. Could they not have managed it so that everyone got at least something? If you were lucky enough to be picked out of the ballot, then you should have gone straight to the back of the queue again, and left until everyone else got something before you were put back in?

My sister’s childhood athletic coach got nothing. This is someone who has dedicated his life to athletics, is president of an athletics club, is encouraging kids to take part in sport, is pretty much responsible for getting my sister to where she is today in athletics, yet won’t be going to watch the Olympics in his own country. How is this fair?

My sister’s event clashes with the men’s 100m final, which was one of the most popular and most expensive events. I paid 20 euros to watch my sister run at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, which also included the 100m final. I know that wasn’t the Olympics and it didn’t feature Mr Bolt, but only 20 euros to see a final which included Dwain Chambers and Christopher Le Maitre.

I just find the whole thing very, very sad. As usual it all comes down to money. I think the process has been a farce from start to finish and we have missed a great opportunity. With the state of the economy the way it is, with obesity levels rising and with all the other socioeconomic problems we are bombarded with on the news, why are we not using the Olympics to do something good. We should be encouraging people to watch it, to enjoy it, to become involved, not turning people off. The Olympics should include everyone.

Family Legends Part 2

I received an email from the Scottish Book trust recently which made me very happy. The Family Legend story I wrote about my granny in Dundee had been chosen for inclusion in the book!

Allan and I headed along to the launch night, which was held at the BBC Headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. A good choice of venue, even if we didn’t manage to see anyone famous or get to explore it much.

The evening started off with a few introductions and statistics, including the writer-affirming fact that over 700 people had submitted a story and, of those, 67 were picked for the book.

After that there were a few readings, including two published authors, a writer/comedian and one of the winners. Both of the two published authors had got into writing late in life and included Mae Stewart a writer from Dundee. She had originally self-published a book of stories about growing up in Dundee, but it had been so successful she’d been taken on by a publisher and now has two books available. I tried to speak to her during the event due to our Dundee connections, and the fact that I’d actually bought her books for my mum’s Christmas, but she was too popular and I didn’t get a chance. I did email her after the event and she said she’d been attracted to my story on the train home because she saw the word Dundee, so it felt good to be noticed!

The writer/comedian had a lot of good things to say about the book. She finished by reading out a story which she’d created using a line from the first paragraphs of everyone’s stories. It was really clever the way she’d merged the stories together and I enjoyed listening out for my line.

The last reader read out his poem, which had been used at the front of the book and had everyone laughing. What made it even more amazing was the fact that he told us he suffered from mental health problems and couldn’t even leave the house two years ago. He used writing as a way of trying to help with his problems. Throughout the course of the evening, I spoke to others who used writing as a means of therapy and it emphasised to me just how healing writing can be.

After the readings we were all presented with a free copy of the book and there was wine and pizza. We got our photos taken too. See if you can spot me (and my glassses glare!).

The Dundee appreciation society also continued as it seemed that there were a few Dundonian writers in the book. We all gravitated towards each other and ended up signing each other’s books. One lady had originally written a story which she’d deleted by mistake. She ended up writing another one about her son who has down syndrome. It turned out to be a flash of good fortune that she’d lost the first story, as it was the one about her son that got chosen. Her son was there looking very proud. It really was quite humbling.

It was a great event and I felt very privileged to be a part of it. Some of the writers were just starting out whereas others were more serious about their writing, but everyone was enthusiastic and appreciative of the stories included in the book.