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Get in your Olympic seat within 30 minutes or lose them
- London 2012 organisers take tickets from international sporting federations and resell them to the public online
- David Cameron: I ‘totally share the frustration’ of spectators without tickets
- Troops, teachers and students drafted in to fill gaps in crowds
- Athletes’ parents turned away from swimming and tennis events after technical glitch
Spectators who fail to take their seats within 30 minutes of the start of an Olympic event could lose them under plans being considered by Games organisers.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the new rule was being explored after many events began in half-empty stadia as sponsors and delegates failed to show up.
In an attempt to pack venues, London 2012 organisers Locog have taken some 3,000 Olympics tickets from international sporting federations and put them ‘back in the pot’ to be bought by members of the public.
Locog, which has already drafted in troops, teachers and schoolchildren to fill gaps in the crowds, hopes to continue offering tickets for resale as the Games progress.
Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4′s The World At One that a possible 30-minute rule was being considered.
He said: ‘Well that’s what we’re looking at doing.
‘We’re looking at whether we are able to do it, but we are hosting this event under a contractual arrangement that we have with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sports federations and so we do have to respect what we’ve agreed to contractually in order to get London to host the Games.’
Deserted: Countless rows of seats were left empty at the cross country competition in Greenwich Park today -
provoking yet more outrage from fans unable to get a ticket for the event
Anonymous
July 31st, 2012
Absolute incompetence!
Hybrid Lemon
July 31st, 2012
Refresh my memory…what did Romney get criticized for saying?
F.D.R. in Hell
July 31st, 2012
I guarantee, terrorists don’t want to interrupt this fiasco.
Boobie the Rocket Dog
July 31st, 2012
I have a picture from four years ago showing the same empty seat problem at the Athens Olympics. Maybe it’s NOT the UK organizers’ fault but the famously corrupt International Olympic Committee’s fault.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
LadyGun12
July 31st, 2012
Rush said yesterday that he had tried to buy tickets to some of the events and was told they were sold out and there was nothing they could do.
Oblahblahblahma
July 31st, 2012
Bush’s fault!
m00pa
July 31st, 2012
“There are a few things that were disconcerting.” – “The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging.” – ” We will have to wait and see” – Mitt Romney
To the lap dog media in retort:
“They know what they’re doing” – Michelle Obama
In a speech to O-bots about the economy:
“We tried our ideas, and they worked” – Barrack Hussien Obama (B-Ho as Sunny says)
Noodengr
July 31st, 2012
It is sad when these once evert four events get screwed up by general incompetence , greed, and stupidity. In this day and age of being able to communicate vast amounts of info instantly there is no excuse for all events to be able to distrbute tickets in a fair and efficeint manner. I bet you can trace this back to folks with the mind set ” well that is the way we have always done it” and who are not willing to embrace a better way.
scr_north
July 31st, 2012
It will be interesting if they do this. The first issue will be the throngs of people hanging around waiting for these no-show tickets to go on sale and what happens when only a few do. The second will be what will happen if public transit starts to break down and people get their seats sold from under them because London Transit failed to get them to the stadium in time. Riots anyone?
Stranded in Sonoma
July 31st, 2012
In the 1996 olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 olympics in Sydney, IBM wanted to show the world just how great their OS/2 Warp (The Windows killer! Remember that?) operating system was running Lotus Notes and how great IBM was as a whole.
Unfortunately, nothing worked well together. Some custom software failed and wasn’t up to the task anyway. Persistent crashes became the norm. IBM was left with human runners actually carrying messages about the winners and losers and such to the various press areas.
Most olympics have always been major fubar’d. Except for Los Angeles 1984 and Salt Lake City 2002.
Pickled Liver
July 31st, 2012
Are they still saying Mitt was wrong?
dude
July 31st, 2012
See what happens when government runs something….
David Kramer
July 31st, 2012
Sounds like a scam to me. So………they are going to sell the same seat twice? Gotta love the ingenuity on making money off this.
Bob M.
July 31st, 2012
Tell folks to hang tight – the STEELERS begin play September 9th, against the Denver Hobby Horsies!
IronyCurtain
July 31st, 2012
If I don’t behave myself on earth I’m sure to hear, “Welcome to Hell, Mr. Curtain, allow me to direct you to your front row seat to the Olympics.”
Chuck U Farley
July 31st, 2012
“Oh, those colors are just to die for! They are FABULOUS!”
With the Moosehell Obama-inspired color-coordinated tacky decor I’m surprised every homo this side of the Atlantic isn’t in attendance.
webby h
July 31st, 2012
NOT to worry .. they’ll have it all straightened out in three weeks .. they just need another $50 million