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.