Category Archives: London 2012

London 2012 Olympic Ticket Update

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London 2012 Olympic Tickets

London 2012 Olympic Logo

London 2012 Olympic Logo

Well the first thing to say is I didn’t get any.  I did apply, not for too many, but I clearly missed out when the raffle was drawn, or the balls were picked, or whatever happened.  I don’t have any problem with the methods used to determine ticket allocations – they were always going to be oversubscribed – but in hindsight it looks like there were some methods which would have increased one’s chances.

Firstly it looks like applicants received something like 10% – 20% of the tickets they applied for.  That’s not a bad ratio but of course if you only applied for four tickets the likelihood is that you’d end up with nothing.  Ok then, to make sure you got tickets you needed to apply for 40 or 50.  The risk then, because of the way the payment system worked, is that you might get more than you can afford.  If you were really unlucky you could find yourself with an enormous credit card bill and tickets to a load of crappy events

Secondly it seems as though (anecdotally) the blue riband events were the least applied for – meaning that you had a slightly higher chance of success if you applied for the 100 metres final at £300 a ticket than the hockey qualifiers at £20 a ticket.

There’s probably no way a system could be designed that would keep everyone happy and

Synchronised swimming

Were you lucky enough to get tickets for this...........?

there haven’t been too many complaints about this one.  The traditional methods of sales always seem to lead to touts and ticket agencies getting hold of vast quantities of tickets, meaning the genuine spectator has to pay more than the face value to see the sport they want.  Perhaps they could have made the ballot procedure a little more transparent by disclosing the methods used to choose applicants – one assumes it’s a piece of software set up with the appropriate algorithms to pick the winners fairly.

Anyway don’t despair if you haven’t yet got any tickets – unsuccessful applicants will get first go at any unsold tickets during June and July, after which there will be an open sale on the London 2012 official website.

 

London 2012 Olympics Update Part Seven

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I think we have now covered every single venue that will be used during the London 2012 Olympics.  A city such as London can call on an inexhaustible supply of historic, atmospheric venues and some of the locations such as the parks and the Artillery Barracks are superb.  Other locations have been redesigned almost from the ground up and this is all part of the legacy value of any Olympic games.

Coventry City - Ricoh Arena

Coventry City's Ricoh Arena

There is one group of venues as yet unaccounted for and these are the locations for the football competition.  The final will be held at the only place worthy of an Olympic final – Wembley Stadium, rebuilt completely several years ago at enormous cost.  The other venues for the various group stages are the Ricoh Arena (Coventry City), Hampden Park (Glasgow Rangers), the Millenium Stadium (Welsh National Stadium in Cardiff), Old Trafford (Manchester United) and St. James Park (Newcastle United).

You can only surmise that the 2012 organisers wanted to spread the competition around the country a bit – and Scotland and Wales of course, after all it’s a British Olympic team but even given these factors the choice of Coventry City’s ground seems an odd one.  I’ve been there and it’s certainly a nice stadium but it’s Coventry City.  Looking at the location of the other stadia, this choice represents the Midlands, so what are the alternatives?  Frankly not much if you want a new-build stadium.  Derby County, Leicester City, Coventry City and MK Dons all have nice new grounds.  No one’s interested in the MK franchise so that leaves the other three.  They’re all Championship level teams so maybe Cov was picked out of the hat and got lucky.

Interestingly the British still do not seem to have reached an agreement on whether to enter

Jim Boyce talking about Olympic football

Jim Boyce

a joint football team – each nation historically has it’s own, obviously England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Aside from England the other teams are worried that if they play in a joint team they will lose their future rights to play as individual teams within Fifa.  Despite Fifa Vice-President Jim Boyce saying this is not so, the situation is still unclear.

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Six

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Part Six you say?  Hey, there’s a lot of venues and my days of typing a thousand words in one

Olympic Shooter at Royal Artillery Barracks

Royal Artillery Barracks

go are long gone.  There’s still a few of the smaller venues left to elaborate on and we may even have to push for a part seven.   So what’s left then?  Quite a few actually and let’s head down to the Royal Artillery Barracks first.

This will be the venue for all the Olympic and Paralympic shooting events.  The RAB is actually an unused building at the moment since the 16th Royal Artillery Regiment departed in 2007.  After some debate about whether to sell the site it was eventually decided to rehouse the Foot Guards and the Royal Horse Artillery here in 2011.  It’s a fantastic building and the decision to keep it within the military will be welcomed by all enthusiasts.

Over to SW19 now and Wimbledon will not surprisingly be hosting the tennis.  The official name is actually the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club although croquet will only play a minor part in the Olympic games.  Hang on, no it won’t, my mistake.

For some reason volleyball is deemed popular enough to have two codes represented at the Olympics (beach and indoor) and these will take place at Horse Guards Parade (beach) and Earls Court Exhibition Centre (indoor).  Both venues will be 15000 seaters and let’s hope the weather holds out for the beach volleyball.

The beautiful Hyde Park in central London will host the long distance swimming and

Birds eye view of Hyde Park

Hyde Park

triathlon events.  The park is nearly 300 years old and comprises around 350 acres.  It seems a shame to lumber it with a made up event such as long distance swimming – as if there aren’t far too many swimming events as it is.

The triathlon’s a good’un though and both events will make use of the historic Serpentine Lake at the centre of the park.

Archery will take place at the home of English cricket – Lord’s Cricket Ground – and temporary seating will be installed so at least the spectators will be able to view the action.

One of the other historic areas, Regent’s Park, will host much of the road cycling and Wembley Arena will host the Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics.  Probably best not to get me started on rhythmic gymnastics.