‘I’ve won Olympic tickets!’ are the words I’ve yet to hear from anyone I know. Unsurprising considering 1.2 million applicants failed to win a single seat. The second round is upon us – will you give it another go?
Of the 1.9 million people who applied for tickets, two thirds didn’t win any. That’s a percentage which grew from Locog’s original ‘one in seven’ estimation.
What can you say? Other than the whole thing was a bit of a farce – leaving most empty handed, and some with more than they could afford.
Olympic winners and losers
One of those left without a single ticket was me. I’m not terribly bitter – I didn’t put too much heart into it, bidding on just one athletics day at the very last hour. Then again, I gambled £300 on a couple of tickets and hoped I was in with a chance. Sadly not. Others took the process much more seriously and still missed out, like Convo commenter Mike:
‘Spent a long time choosing tickets thinking about what our children and ourselves would like to see and what dates etc. We chose three events and got nothing at all. Too much hassle for nothing.’
There are countless other stories like this on our previous Olympic tickets Convo. But not everyone is as bitter. Some lucky sods have received an email stating ‘Congratulations! You have been allocated some of the greatest tickets on earth!’
Now before the ‘bah humbugs’ erupt from my mouth, if you’ve been sent this email, what tickets did you win? Athletics? Swimming? Or Beach Volleyball like our Twitter follower Jude? Sand, scantily-clad athletes and British weather – what more could you ask for?
What Olympic tickets are left?
On to the rest of us – if you were left with zilch, you’ll get first priority to score second round tickets from 6am tomorrow until 6pm on 3 July. So what’s up for grabs? There are 2.3 million tickets available – loads right? Sort of. Most (1.7 million) are for football matches… yay.
As for the other 600,000, these won’t be available for many events including badminton, diving, gymnastics and swimming (except synchronised… no comment). There are some athletics tickets left over – though they’re mainly for high priced (as much as £725 a seat) early morning sessions. Some of the cheaper events include canoeing, beach volleyball, table tennis, wrestling, sailing and archery. Go and check them out for yourself.
Not the greatest choice, but I’m still relatively interested. Except for the fact Locog hasn’t sent me an email inviting me for the ‘exclusive opportunity’ to take part in the second round! I definitely didn’t win any tickets (no money’s been debited) and they certainly have my email, as they’ve sent marketing messages. Looks like I’m out of luck again, which might be a good thing.
A fairer way to sell tickets
What’s interesting about the second round is that, not only is it first-come first-serve, but you can only apply for a limited number of sessions. Doesn’t that sound much fairer than the first round, which left those with a big budget with the advantage? Hopefully you’ll have a better chance this time around, even if the website does crash within the first five minutes.
Are you, like me, feeling like a bit of a Victor Meldrew about the Olympic Games, or will you apply for second round tickets? I think I’ll wait for the Paralympics.
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