The Anonymous Widower

The Real Problem With Olympic Tickets

I did get a few tickets, but not the real ones I wanted like the cycling and the 5,000 metres.  I did get some for the beach volleyball though!

I should have applied for more events and perhaps only two tickets for each, rather than the three or four I did.

The real problem isw that for some events there are just not enough tickets. And that doesn’t mean that too many are going to sponsors and the great and good.

Take the equestrian events, which are being held in Greenwich Park.  I applied for the cross-country day for the eventing and got none. It should have been held in a larger venue, where they could really have spread everything out. Three venues would have offered much more space and they already have purpose built grandstands that can take over 50,000 spectators.  These are the racecourses at Epsom, Ascot and Sandown.  If you really want space, then you could have done it at Newmarket, the biggest horse centre in the world. After all, if you are doing the sailing at Weymouth, surely putting the eventing slightly out of London wouldn’t have been a problem.

And then of course there’s the British.  And I’ll chuck the Irish in here as well. All of us, be we English, Scotch, Welsh or Irish love our sport and big events. Just look at all the fans, who are going to Glastonbury this weekend, to get filthy dirty in the mud.  It’s an event and we’ll go and fill it.

When did you last here of a major sporting or cultural event in these isles, that wasn’t a success.  I go to Liverpool regularly and many there will tell you how the celebrations in 2008, when the city was European Capital of Culture was a real party, something to be proud of and also an event that kicked the city into the future.

So did we do the Olympics in too small a way?

June 24, 2011 - Posted by AnonW | Sport | Olympics