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First Words - July 2011
Like many of you I’m sure, I didn’t get any Olympic tickets.
That’s not really a surprise as I didn’t apply for any as, although I would love to be part of the event first-hand, I found the whole process rather confusing and my bank manager wouldn’t have appreciated me trying to get several thousand pounds off him this spring for some, at the time, unspecified sporting events next summer.
I’m as yet to have anyone provide me with a decent reason as to why the tickets have been allocated the way they have.
Granted, offering them on a first come, first serve basis like a concert or an everyday sporting event wouldn’t have worked. But surely there was a better way than having people apply in bulk and then drawing a ballot to see who got them? I know it would certainly have spared a few bank managers some sleepless nights.
I’d still like to go of course, and I’m going to be optimistic and take heart from an experience I had a few weeks ago, although not in the sporting arena.
I’m a big Peter Kay fan and my (now) wife made a concerted effort some 18 months ago to get tickets for his comeback Tour That Doesn’t Tour Tour. Tickets were a little price prohibitive at the time, and sold out pretty quickly as there was a high demand.
But one Thursday afternoon at the start of June, she just happened to be searching an online ticket portal when she stumbled across tickets for that evening. So in the space of four hours, we went from preparing a TV dinner to eat in front of Eastenders to watching Rick Astley warm up for Peter Kay.
Not only that, but we had prime seats at the front of the floor, while people that had presumably fought for tickets all those months ago, hugged the clouds in the roof of London’s O2 Arena.
These were legitimate tickets (touting is bad) so I’ll be making sure I keep my eyes and ears open in the weeks and days ahead of July 27, 2012.
David Pittman, editor, SGB Sports
