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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Olympic tickets? Have you seen what scraps are left in the second round?

26 replies

NottsCounting · 17/06/2011 21:11

Like many, we didn't get any tickets in the first ballot, despite going for five different sports, and no, we didn't go for the obvious opening/closing ceremonies or 100m sprint type events.

We have had a look at availability for tickets released next week - four out of our five desired events have no availability AT ALL, and the other event has just a few tickets only ('low availability'). About twenty sports have no availability at all. Nada.

AIBU to expect that we would have at least a chance of seeing an event at, say modern pentathlon, canoe slalom or mountain biking? It feels atm that the olympics is something of an exclusive club which isn't even giving us the crumbs from the table Sad.

OP posts:
nancy75 · 17/06/2011 21:13

I heard on the radio that almost all of the second chance tickets are for football, which is fine - if you like football!

I believe you can buy them on other countries websites, that might be worth a look.

Mandy2003 · 17/06/2011 21:14

As soon as I saw that applications were only accepted by Visa card I realised the London Olympics weren't for the likes of ordinary people. Lost interest at that point.

OK, yes, plenty of ordinary people DO have Visa cards, but to have made it exclusive, no, sorry, that's just wrong.

LineRunner · 17/06/2011 21:14

Archery's left.

I can't think of a single thing to say about that.

Pedallleur · 17/06/2011 21:22

And if you do get tickets you'll find roads reserved for the athletes/VIPs. Ah, the Olympic ideals burn so brightly

JudysJudgement · 17/06/2011 21:23

pigs ear as usual

Original poster
NottsCounting · 17/06/2011 21:55

So, not BU then? Just part of the unlucky majority who will have to watch on TV - though as you say, we might be able to get football tickets - Whooppee-do Sad

AIBU then, by extension, to want to smack smug Seb Coe's face when he appears on TV being all smarmy about it all? Please say no Smile!

OP posts:
PanicMode · 17/06/2011 21:58

I've just been reading about this on the Telegraph website - apparently there are 2.3 million tickets left - 1.7 million of which are for FOOTBALL!!!! And in the events where there are tickets left, they are all £60+ level tickets - I wonder how many empty seats there will be at popular events - all those corporate tickets going to people who don't bother to turn up because someone else is paying....

LineRunner · 17/06/2011 22:00

Christ, it's hardly the people's olympics, is it?

Are we even IN the football? There's an issue isn't there about the UK's different FAs.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 17/06/2011 22:02

I'm pissed off that in order to see almost anything now (other than football) I am going to have to spend between £40 -£65 each for our two kids (the youngest of which is 4yrs).

Now they limit applications to 3 sessions each why didn't they do that first time around. There is no way they can pretend the process worked well when the majority of people who applied got nothing.

SoftKittyWarmKitty · 17/06/2011 22:40

I agree with the poster who said they should have limited the number of events you could apply for in the first place.

Women's basketball has some pay your age tickets left, I was looking earlier at what's still available. None of the sports still available interest me, so think I'll just watch the ones I like on TV from the comfort of my own home.

bonkers20 · 17/06/2011 22:48

...I hate that it's first come first served. How much do you want to bet that it crashes at about 6.01am on the 24th June? I'll bet my opening ceremony tickets..oh I didn't get any, OK then my track cycle tickets....oh, didn't get them either, OK then my athletics tickets...oh, didn't get them either.

Anyone for handball or the ministry of silly walks race race walking?

piprabbit · 17/06/2011 22:52

Roll on the Paralympics.

FakePlasticTrees · 17/06/2011 22:56

Normally on big events like this there's another round after other countries find they can't sell all their allocation and they go back on sale in the host country on a 'first come first served' basis, although if I remember rightly, when they did that for the Commonwealth games in Manchester the extra tickets went on sale really close to the date, only a few weeks before.

Which is fine if you're local enough, but not really if you live in other parts of the UK and need to be able to plan to get to London and find somewhere to stay.

HidinginaHardHat · 17/06/2011 22:57

It's a giant corporate event, when will people realise this. You can only go if you're a squillionaire

splashymcsplash · 17/06/2011 23:23

I just got an email saying I didn't get any and I applied for 600 worth. Lots of heats, not even finals. How much do you need to pledge to get any? I'm annoyed that one person got over 10000 worth and I got nada. Doesn't seem fair, does yr? :(

Maryz · 17/06/2011 23:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sayithowitis · 17/06/2011 23:37

Since all four of us applied, having gone to the trouble of getting VISA cards especially for this one thing, and none of us getting a single ticket, I certainly will not be spending a penny of my money on buying tickets for events that I didn't want to see in the first place! I really don't understand why the limits on number of events/tickets, could not have been put in place for the original ballots. More people would have got a chance to go and see something they were interested in. It should also have been possible to write a programme that would have blocked anyone's name going into further ballots if they had already been successful in one. Only when they had applied for tickets in an under-subscribed event should their names have been entered into any further ballots.

PanicMode · 18/06/2011 08:12

I will confess that I DID get tickets - I only applied for £168 worth of tickets - the three day event for me and my DD, and cycling and gymnastics for the whole family - the latter with pay your age tickets for the four children. I haven't got a clue what I've got yet, and I know that I was VERY lucky to get anything.

I think that the problem was that LOCOG didn't manage expectations beforehand - if we'd all known that 2/3rds of the events would go to ballot then perhaps expectations of getting tickets would not have been so high.

WearegoingonaKwazihunt · 18/06/2011 08:31

The process was not transparent at all. We applied for 6 events I think all at lower cost pay your age tickets totalling £300 and got nothing.
With the benefit of hindsight I can see that everyone else would have applied for those tickets too, but without knowing how many tickets were available in each category I couldn't make an informed decision could I?

That's what has made me angry. It's not been an open and fair process.

I live really near the Olympic site and DH wants us to rent our house out and bugger off. I want to enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity and feel proud of my dodgy bit of London.

I feel very let down and sad about the whole thing. And yes I want to wipe the smug grin off Lord Coes face.

EdithWeston · 18/06/2011 08:38

DH has been away - returned last night to tell me we'd got nothing (applied for early rounds for athletics, swimming and gymnastics plus hockey heats).

Feeling very disappointed (just catching up with everyone else).

He'll have a go at the next round - but that's got a crap, crap, crap system too - ticket sales aren't immediately taken off the availability, so you could still apply for an event which is actually already sold out (to earlier callers). You'll only find out 48hours after your application, and if you get nothing again you cannot reapply.

Omigawd · 18/06/2011 09:14

The way the lottery worked you got if you asked for lots, if you werevreasonable you probably got FA.

Then they can flog all the stuff no one wanted in a second shot as there is so much panic.

EssexBecca · 18/06/2011 19:45

I am going to try to log on and apply for 3 but suspect chances are really slim. What I am most confused about is that Women's Mountain Biking is on the list, with 'good availability'. I applied for this in the 1st round - so why didn't I get it then? Did they hold tickets back for 2nd round? There was only 1 ticket price so it wasn't that. Very confused. I'm not especially into mountain biking BUT we live within walking distance of the course so it seemed special, we get regular updates on the progress of the course etc.

Nancy66 · 18/06/2011 19:50

I did get tickets - but don't know what yet. Applied for £700 worth

One of sports was synchronized swimming - and I see there's quite a few left going into the next ballots - so I bet that's what I've got

JemimaMop · 18/06/2011 20:01

Well I got football tickets and am delighted, am a bit Hmm at the derogatory comments about them!

I have two sons, who next summer will be 8 and nearly 10. They love football and play in the under 11s league. They also love rugby and cricket, but they aren't olympic sports.

The football match that we are going to see is at the Milennium stadium in Cardiff, which is far closer to us than London. We have been to watch rugby internationals there on several occasions, but it will be extra special going there to watch the Olympics.

So for us, the football tickets were perfect. Not everyone necessarily wants to go for the big athletics competitions or travel to London.

Andrewofgg · 18/06/2011 20:01

The one thing which was certain that however the tickets were distributed the users would whinge and sure enough . . .