Millions miss out on Olympics 2012 tickets
Thursday 2nd June 2011, 10:26AM BST.
Organisers of the Olympics were today accused of making a farce of ticketing after millions missed out – while others bought tickets without knowing which events they were for.
Even the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, missed out amid the scramble to secure tickets for the world’s greatest sporting event.
Mr Johnson entered the ballot but failed to secure tickets. He joked that no other country in the world would reject the major of the host city’s application and added: “But I suppose there are thousands of Johnsons who apply, how are they supposed to know.”
People across Shropshire were finding out whether or not they had been successful by checking their bank accounts to see whether sums had been withdrawn.
However, even the lucky ones who found money taken from their balances did not know what tickets they had purchased.
One angry Shropshire resident, Cherrie Evans, 66, of Kensington Gardens, Minsterley, missed out. She said: “We didn’t go for the blue riband events, just ordinary heats and round-robin events. We’ve been saving for three-and-a-half years, £10 per month and we’d been really hopeful. This was supposed to be the people’s Olympics but most of the people don’t get the tickets. It is so disappointing.”
Meanwhile, a new survey has revealed that Much Wenlock is among the most important locations in Great Britain – because of its Olympic connections.
- How did your ticket application fare? Tell us in the comments box below
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I think its a disgrace that the people of Much Wenlock weren’t given free tickets to The Olympics let alone having to apply for them like normal people. They should also have been transported down to the Olympic Stadium, re-named the Much Wenlock Olympic Stadium on large velvet pillows.
After all, it is the birth place of the modern olympics..
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Unlucky applicants for tickets may regard it as a farce, or be angry, because they don’t have tickets.
But, the process dealt with 20 million applications for 6.6 million seats. Clearly not everyone would get a ticket. It is also fair that over subscribed events should have a ballot for ticket allocation.
What is it about the British that wants to rubbish any success? The games are good for the country. Won in fair competition. The stadia have been built ahead of time and under budget. Millions want to see the games and all events will be well attended.
Surely much better than previous games when organisers had to bus in school children to fill empty stadia.
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It is all a con, no way under our normal laws would a company be allowed to take money from you without actually telling you what you have bought, BUT just like fifa the olympic chaps get the host nation to sign documents effectviely suspending local law in relation to the event, the organisers the competitors, taxation and all sorts…
Did you know that noone involved with the champions league final at wembley paid any tax? Nice to know we are all in it together, eh?
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Why is it a con? Any ticket allocated is one that the person applied for!
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The spirit of the Olympics is to promote fairness and inclusivity. It’s a shame the ticketing process did not live up to this ideal. While the more wealthy could bid greedily for huge amount s of tickets and be able to pay for them if successful, the not so well of were restricted to what they could realistically afford, thus reducing the odds of success. Yet another example of us all “not being in this together” in our ‘big society’.
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Cherrie Evans of Minsterley has every right to be angry. They should have given tickets to everyone who wanted one. They should have designed the Olympic stadium to seat every last one of the million of the people who wanted to watch the men’s sprint final. Yes, it would have cost several billion pounds more to host, and the people at the back would have needed a powerful telescope, but what were the stadium designers playing at. They have no regard for people like Cherrie Evans. It makes me so cross.
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Why doesn’t the Star story read “Millions get Olympics tickets” ? A “newspaper” that is more concerned with negativity than anything else.
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Sorry to bang on about this ludicrous piece of reporting but, in fact, 250,000 people didn’t get any ticket so “millions missed out” is simply rubbish. Not everyone got evrything they wanted but that was always going to happen.
Is there no editorial checking of what’s published?
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What’s this? Have I missed it? How did we do in the Hop Skip and Jump?
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Thanks for that, I was almost falling asleep reading these comments :O)
I’m hoping for some anti-olympic events near me so I can drink plenty, eat unhealthy food and play stupid games. Hop Skip and Jump, egg and spoon, welly wanging….
Can’t wait!
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Actually Joanne we were approached by Shrewsbury Borough Council {RIP} to provide a mannequin piglet for the Wenlock re-anactment in the Quarry. Yep…Catching The Greased Piglet was an actual early Wenlock Olympic game!! Theres not many people know that..as Michael Caine never said..
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To be totally honest, I can’t see why anybody in Shropshire would want to go to the Olympics. The Olympics don’t want the torch to come here, so why the hell should we go down there. I have completely lost interest in the Olympics, until I know the torch is coming to Shropshire. I think it is a disgrace, after all it’s a well documented fact that the Modern Olympic movement was if not re-invented in Much Wenlock, it was certainly re-kindled.
The town council of Much Wenlock and the County Council should hang their heads in shame.
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“a new survey has revealed that Much Wenlock is among the most important locations in Great Britain”
Gosh, really? Who carried out that survey – it wasn’t the British Olympic Greased Pig Catching Association by any chance?
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This just shows the incompetence and poor planning by the organisers. If they has priced the tickets correctly they would not have had this problem of over-subscription and still sold the same amount of tickets. they could have doubled the price of all the tickets. that way less people would have applied and less people would have been disappointed and they would have doubled their profits.
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