London 2012 Olympics Tickets

[Hobart]

got a rowing ticket from cosports Australia they had ticket for aths on 100m final night and other good events.

Will be interesting to see if the tennis is packed every session every day as cant seam to get tickets at all will have to try my luck at the games for that one

[Madscouser]

How do you apply for Cosport tickets ?

Only availabilty now is a bit of boxing, weightlifting, wrestling ; bit more voleyball and tons of football

[Mr Tickle]

U need to go to the cosport website and set up an account. There next batch of tickets goes live on Tuesday

[Citizen-Seth]

Can anyone tell me how the ticketing system for London is different from Athens and Torino? I've seen several Twitter comments on how the ticketing was handled much better for those games. What, if anything, is different, or are people just angry that they were unlucky with their requests?

[Faster]

Can anyone tell me how the ticketing system for London is different from Athens and Torino? I've seen several Twitter comments on how the ticketing was handled much better for those games. What, if anything, is different, or are people just angry that they were unlucky with their requests?

Nothing really, its the same system, in principle, that has been used since Atlanta. I just think the difference is that Athens and Torino were a lot more informative and there was a lot less demand for tickets at those games compared to London.

[FiveRingFever]

Can anyone tell me how the ticketing system for London is different from Athens and Torino? I've seen several Twitter comments on how the ticketing was handled much better for those games. What, if anything, is different, or are people just angry that they were unlucky with their requests?

I don't think Athens and Torino are comparable. So many sessions weren't sold out for each of those games, especially Athens. I think the level of frustration tends to be proportional to the overall ticket demand. Also, I think that people mostly went for the cheaper seats, which were massively oversubscribed compared to the pricier levels. If LOCOG had made the made the highest priced seats cheaper and the lowest priced seats more expensive, they might not have had as much of a public relations disaster because there probably wouldn't have been as many applicants to disappoint. Personally, I think that the organizers wanted to project the appearance that the games are affordable to everyone, when in reality, the Olympics tend to be an expensive endeavor. Add to that two other brilliant ideas- charging people without telling them what events they got and not allowing them to sell their tickets or prospects of their tickets until next year, even at face value. Some of the complaining is unrealistic, but a lot of it is genuinely valid. Bottom line is that LOCOG made some highly questionable business decisions and now they're dealing with the consequences.

[memorabilia]

Nothing really, its the same system, in principle, that has been used since Atlanta. I just think the difference is that Athens and Torino were a lot more informative and there was a lot less demand for tickets at those games compared to London.

Yes. Less local demand!

Here you have a high demand from uk but also eu. Both combined that a lot of demands!

But it is also due that people are not used to that process...

It is usual to not get everything at first round. But there will be plenty of opportunity to buy tickets from locog or other atr!

Locog and atr will release tickets they actually put in their package!

Per memory, in athens through 3 differents orders with my friends we got less than 30% of our orders after phase 1. By the end we attended 2 sessions per day from OC to CC

[Rob2012]

The infrequent communication, the not knowing what you'd got till a couple of weeks after the money had gone (huh?), and the Visa monopoloy on payment were the biggest problems...they're the things LOCOG could have done better (well, the Visa thing was out of their hands, but the other two points could certainly have been improved upon).

But the biggest noise and clamour from the press has been that people are missing out and that the ticketing distribution is "unfair"....and most people now believe this to be the case. This simply isn't a justifiable gripe though, I'm afraid. The fact is the demand for these Games has been massive, and in a lottery some people lose.

It's slightly weird that when there are genuine oddities with the system, that our Press - God love 'em - goes for the jugular on something which isn't actually a problem.

Yes. Less local demand!

Here you have a high demand from uk but also eu. Both combined that a lot of demands!

But it is also due that people are not used to that process...

It is usual to not get everything at first round. But there will be plenty of opportunity to buy tickets from locog or other atr!

Locog and atr will release tickets they actually put in their package!

Per memory, in athens through 3 differents orders with my friends we got less than 30% of our orders after phase 1. By the end we attended 2 sessions per day from OC to CC

Where are these new tickets going to come from? LOCOG said they've got half a million to release still - that's it. Unless an awful lot of people hand back tickets I can't see the same happening at London. Two sessions a day?! I reckon we'll be very lucky to end up with two sessions a week to be honest.

[Ryan]

First time poster, but I've been following this thread for a while.

I'm from the US so I've had to deal with COSPORT. During the initial ticket request phase I requested 5 tickets plus the opening ceremony, all in the cheaper D and E price category. Turns out I didn't get any tickets in the initial request phase. However, for the people who didn't get any tickets initially COSPORT has opened their first-come, first-served phase early (Thursday June 24 instead of June 28). So yesterday I logged in at the specified time and was pleasantly surprised to find tickets available to all sports except the opening ceremonies, although mostly in the higher priced A/B/C category.

All in all, I got all the events I originally requested except the opening ceremony and a swimming final. I got tickets to tennis, football, basketball, and beach volleyball.

It's official, I'm going to my first games!

[Rob2012]

Congrats Ryan and welcome to the forum!

[Citius Altius Fortius]

welcome to our boards, ryan - it is great to have a new member from the US here!!!

[baron-pierreIV]

I don't think Athens and Torino are comparable. So many sessions weren't sold out for each of those games, especially Athens. I think the level of frustration tends to be proportional to the overall ticket demand. Also, I think that people mostly went for the cheaper seats, which were massively oversubscribed compared to the pricier levels. If LOCOG had made the made the highest priced seats cheaper and the lowest priced seats more expensive, they might not have had as much of a public relations disaster because there probably wouldn't have been as many applicants to disappoint. Personally, I think that the organizers wanted to project the appearance that the games are affordable to everyone, when in reality, the Olympics tend to be an expensive endeavor. Add to that two other brilliant ideas- charging people without telling them what events they got and not allowing them to sell their tickets or prospects of their tickets until next year, even at face value. Some of the complaining is unrealistic, but a lot of it is genuinely valid. Bottom line is that LOCOG made some highly questionable business decisions and now they're dealing with the consequences.

Obvious to say it but the demand has just been incredible. LOCOG based their ticketing logorithms and projections on results of recent Games. I don't think they mis-priced their tickets. The demand bore out their anticipations. Even in so-called questionable economic times, the event is a 1x-lifetime one, so of course people within the 500-mi radius will try to get what they can. It just looks bad because there are so many disappointed purchasers.

So if there were only 6.5 million (is that the total # of tix available?) orders for the EXACT seat allocations, then I am sure, LOCOG would've accomplished its ticket sales phase in 3 days.

But it is a very complicated process and numerous constituencies have to be satisfied. PLUS, like LOCOG promised what? 50,000 free seats for certain school children & other parties. So even if the demand was there to sell those tix, LOCOG is setting aside those freebies which would be subsidized by the steeper "A" prices.

And you're not even dealing with lost, misplaced and counterfeit tickets yet!! Wouldn't want to be the person in charge of that!!

[memorabilia]

First time poster, but I've been following this thread for a while.

I'm from the US so I've had to deal with COSPORT. During the initial ticket request phase I requested 5 tickets plus the opening ceremony, all in the cheaper D and E price category. Turns out I didn't get any tickets in the initial request phase. However, for the people who didn't get any tickets initially COSPORT has opened their first-come, first-served phase early (Thursday June 24 instead of June 28). So yesterday I logged in at the specified time and was pleasantly surprised to find tickets available to all sports except the opening ceremonies, although mostly in the higher priced A/B/C category.

All in all, I got all the events I originally requested except the opening ceremony and a swimming final. I got tickets to tennis, football, basketball, and beach volleyball.

It's official, I'm going to my first games!

Welcome.

Funny that people are saying the lottery system is unfair! It's'because they played low... When they should have played high! I could not imagine someone with nothing if they asked for the maximum of sessions (with a return between 15% aand 25% in average). If they had nothing it's'because they just ordered their prefered tickets only!

For me what is unfair is those private sells... Where people that wake up early could mostly ordered what they wanted!

[FiveRingFever]

First time poster, but I've been following this thread for a while.

I'm from the US so I've had to deal with COSPORT. During the initial ticket request phase I requested 5 tickets plus the opening ceremony, all in the cheaper D and E price category. Turns out I didn't get any tickets in the initial request phase. However, for the people who didn't get any tickets initially COSPORT has opened their first-come, first-served phase early (Thursday June 24 instead of June 28). So yesterday I logged in at the specified time and was pleasantly surprised to find tickets available to all sports except the opening ceremonies, although mostly in the higher priced A/B/C category.

All in all, I got all the events I originally requested except the opening ceremony and a swimming final. I got tickets to tennis, football, basketball, and beach volleyball.

It's official, I'm going to my first games!

Good deal! You'll have a great time. I actually was awarded tickets through my initial CoSport request, so I guess they opened the sale a day earlier to folks who had been completely shut out. I went in at noon today and was able to grab the first night of Athletics, a boxing session, and preliminary basketball. There were still a lot of combat sports left (boxing, wrestling, judo, taekwondo) and quite a few team sports. A lot of sports were completely sold out. No surprise there. It seems like CoSport is getter better at handling these pre-announced sales a lot better than in the past. It was a little slow, but at least I didn't have tickets in my cart only to get booted or sent to virtual purgatory while the 30-minute checkout timer ran out.

[Citizen-Seth]

First time poster, but I've been following this thread for a while.

I'm from the US so I've had to deal with COSPORT. During the initial ticket request phase I requested 5 tickets plus the opening ceremony, all in the cheaper D and E price category. Turns out I didn't get any tickets in the initial request phase. However, for the people who didn't get any tickets initially COSPORT has opened their first-come, first-served phase early (Thursday June 24 instead of June 28). So yesterday I logged in at the specified time and was pleasantly surprised to find tickets available to all sports except the opening ceremonies, although mostly in the higher priced A/B/C category.

All in all, I got all the events I originally requested except the opening ceremony and a swimming final. I got tickets to tennis, football, basketball, and beach volleyball.

It's official, I'm going to my first games!

You're going to have the best time! I do hope we can manage another GB meet up this time around; I missed the one in Vancouver.

I saw people mentioning that on twitter, pity I didn't catch it! I did pretty well in today's sale, though. I got tickets for handball, boxing, archery, basketball, and athletics. Coupled with my original allotment the only thin I really want is swimming and ceremonies.

[Rob2012]

"Of 22 Olympics sports that had tickets remaining at start of day only five still have - footy, volleyb, wrestling, weightlifting, boxing"

http://twitter.com/#!/martynziegler

[FiveRingFever]

Obvious to say it but the demand has just been incredible. LOCOG based their ticketing logorithms and projections on results of recent Games. I don't think they mis-priced their tickets. The demand bore out their anticipations. Even in so-called questionable economic times, the event is a 1x-lifetime one, so of course people within the 500-mi radius will try to get what they can. It just looks bad because there are so many disappointed purchasers.

So if there were only 6.5 million (is that the total # of tix available?) orders for the EXACT seat allocations, then I am sure, LOCOG would've accomplished its ticket sales phase in 3 days.

But it is a very complicated process and numerous constituencies have to be satisfied. PLUS, like LOCOG promised what? 50,000 free seats for certain school children & other parties. So even if the demand was there to sell those tix, LOCOG is setting aside those freebies which would be subsidized by the steeper "A" prices.

And you're not even dealing with lost, misplaced and counterfeit tickets yet!! Wouldn't want to be the person in charge of that!!

I don't disagree that the tickets were mispriced from a ticket revenue standpoint. In fact, they probably could have charged more. I just think that their strategy was ill-considered from an expectations management viewpoint. The single biggest public relations problem has been the enormous number of people who received nothing. If the gap between the highest and lowest prices isn't as pronounced, some people who applied for D's might have applied for some C's, more C's applying for B's, etc. The net result would have been that more people probably would have received at least something, and the sense of public outrage wouldn't have been as great.

On another topic, there's one other thing about the ticketing program that I haven't seen a lot of discussion about, and that is the watered down value of quite a few of the premium events. This is the first time I've ever seen separate sessions for the bronze medal in most of the team sports. It used to be that your ticket to the finals included the bronze and gold medal games for men's and women's volleyball, field hockey, handball, and basketball and for women's football. Quarterfinal and semifinal sessions that used to include two games are now one game apiece. Additionally, rowing and flatwater canoeing used to have two days of finals. Now the finals are spread across four days. So, it's just another way the ticket buyers are getting subtly hosed compared to previous games.

[scooter133]

I guess I wasn't the only one looking to grab tickets from Cosport this morning. It took me over an hour to get one badminton ticket. I started right at the starting time (noon Eastern). At that time, there were only a few higher-priced athletics tickets left and no diving, swimming, gymnastics, or tennis. As of right now, it looks like there's some badminton, basketball, boxing, handball, judo, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling left.

I hope we can do some ticket exchanging/sales on the board here, since those of us outside the EU cannot use LOCOG's system. As for me, I'll probably have one ticket to sell and possibly trade some others.

[scoobiesnacks]

I guess I wasn't the only one looking to grab tickets from Cosport this morning. It took me over an hour to get one badminton ticket. I started right at the starting time (noon Eastern). At that time, there were only a few higher-priced athletics tickets left and no diving, swimming, gymnastics, or tennis. As of right now, it looks like there's some badminton, basketball, boxing, handball, judo, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling left.

I hope we can do some ticket exchanging/sales on the board here, since those of us outside the EU cannot use LOCOG's system. As for me, I'll probably have one ticket to sell and possibly trade some others.

If its the same as Vancouver , international buyers should be able to participate in the fan to fan sales when they start next year. Though you won't be able to sell tickets that did not come direct from the LOCOG site

I agree exchanging on here is a good idea though

[Rob2012]

It used to be that your ticket to the finals included the bronze and gold medal games for men's and women's volleyball, field hockey, handball, and basketball and for women's football. Quarterfinal and semifinal sessions that used to include two games are now one game apiece. Additionally, rowing and flatwater canoeing used to have two days of finals. Now the finals are spread across four days. So, it's just another way the ticket buyers are getting subtly hosed compared to previous games.

LOCOG deliberately shortened sessions so as to create more availability - they've said this more than once, and have been selling it as a positive - more sessions = more tickets. They knew firstly demand would be massive, and secondly one of the reasons for empty seats in Beijing was the length of some of the sessions which put people off.

They've made hundreds of thousands more tickets availble this way. That's a good thing given the huge demand there's been. But I suppose the other side of the coin is what you've said.

---

IOC Review into Beijing 2008:

Ticketing and empty seats were singled out as key issues. While tickets were sold out in Beijing, there were still vacant seats at some of the venues, Felli said.

He said this may have been because ticket-holders did not stay at the venues for long or back-to-back sessions.

http://liveinniagarafalls.com/articles/arts/ioc-trying-to-avoid-empty-seats-at-future-olympics/2613

And the resultant change London 2012 made, interview with LOCOG CEO

ATR: Even if you have strong ticket sales, that’s not a guarantee that people will show up for the sessions. There might still be potentially blocks of empty seats, which have been something organizers and the IOC have been trying harder and harder to avoid. What will London do to make sure that people are in the seats and that there are folks at every session?

PD: Obviously, the first way to get seats filled is to make sure we sell the tickets, and there will undoubtedly be some sports which have some gaps in them that we’ll need to market more heavily and creatively as we get closer to the Games, so that selling effort is number one.

Number two: we’ve done quite a lot on the session lengths and sport presentations, so when people are there, they’re happy to stay there for the whole session. If you compare us to Beijing, even though we’ve got two less sports, I think we’ve got just over 630 sessions compared to 569 in Beijing, and that’s because we’ve shortened sessions.

For example, we have shorter and more beach volleyball sessions because sitting there for five or six hours isn’t something people will do, so we tried to tie the sport presentation and the session length into something that will be gripping and have people there the whole time.

http://www.aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=36605

[baron-pierreIV]

I don't disagree that the tickets were mispriced from a ticket revenue standpoint. In fact, they probably could have charged more. I just think that their strategy was ill-considered from an expectations management viewpoint. The single biggest public relations problem has been the enormous number of people who received nothing. If the gap between the highest and lowest prices isn't as pronounced, some people who applied for D's might have applied for some C's, more C's applying for B's, etc. The net result would have been that more people probably would have received at least something, and the sense of public outrage wouldn't have been as great.

The problem is there are only a finite no. of seats to be filled. I am sure even LOCOG was floored by the deluge of ticket applications they got.

But look at me...I have no disappointments. Well, that's because I didn't order any.

I think Sochi might NOT be too sold out. I met someone the other night who went to 4 hockey prelims in Vancouver -- who seemed to even brag about that. I asked him if he was going to do the same for Sochi. He said "No way; what with Georgia and Checnhya only within a hundred miles or so!" His words...not mine. So for those of you disappointed; you might be luckier with Sochi.

Number two: we’ve done quite a lot on the session lengths and sport presentations, so when people are there, they’re happy to stay there for the whole session. If you compare us to Beijing, even though we’ve got two less sports, I think we’ve got just over 630 sessions compared to 569 in Beijing, and that’s because we’ve shortened sessions.

On the other hand, if I paid high ducats for a bronze Lightweight Category boxing round that lasted ONLY 6 minutes, I would rip somebody's head off!! Which is why it's best that I didn't dream of going there next year.

[CTG]

Good deal! You'll have a great time. I actually was awarded tickets through my initial CoSport request, so I guess they opened the sale a day earlier to folks who had been completely shut out. I went in at noon today and was able to grab the first night of Athletics, a boxing session, and preliminary basketball. There were still a lot of combat sports left (boxing, wrestling, judo, taekwondo) and quite a few team sports. A lot of sports were completely sold out. No surprise there. It seems like CoSport is getter better at handling these pre-announced sales a lot better than in the past. It was a little slow, but at least I didn't have tickets in my cart only to get booted or sent to virtual purgatory while the 30-minute checkout timer ran out.

I was able to add to the one event I got through the initial CoSport request today, although it was very stressful due to the extreme slowness of the site. I also had an issue where an event did not show up in my cart that I know I added, as well as the site taking forever to process my checkout, meanwhile the 30 minute timer ran out! So I had to start all over again, but I did end up filling up the week with basketball, boxing, canoeing, wrestling, handball, and tae kwon do. I was disappointed I did not get athletics or football. Will have to keep checking back as CoSport says they are trying to get more inventory.

[FiveRingFever]

I think Sochi might NOT be too sold out. I met someone the other night who went to 4 hockey prelims in Vancouver -- who seemed to even brag about that. I asked him if he was going to do the same for Sochi. He said "No way; what with Georgia and Checnhya only within a hundred miles or so!" His words...not mine. So for those of you disappointed; you might be luckier with Sochi.

That thought relative to security has crossed my mind as well. Of course, London is not exactly a picnic.

[FiveRingFever]

LOCOG deliberately shortened sessions so as to create more availability - they've said this more than once, and have been selling it as a positive - more sessions = more tickets. They knew firstly demand would be massive, and secondly one of the reasons for empty seats in Beijing was the length of some of the sessions which put people off.

They've made hundreds of thousands more tickets availble this way. That's a good thing given the huge demand there's been. But I suppose the other side of the coin is what you've said.

I do understand the rationale. I suppose it's too much to expect the tickets prices to adjust accordingly. It is somewhat of a raw deal for the serious fans of a sport. Not only do they have to pay more than 2 times the amount to see the equivalent amount of competition, they also have a bigger drain of time to watch one game, vacate the venue, wait for a couple of hours, and go back in for the second game. I guess we had all better get used to it, because I would be surprised to see it revert back to the old way in the future.

[Mercury]

Hi everyone:

Went on line at US Cosport to supplement my lottery allocation today and purchased 2 synchronized swimming tickets at top dollar since they were the only ones available at that time (1pm EST)...then 2 hours later less expensive tickets miraculously appeared...they popped up (at around 3pm.) I wasn't able to switch. Word to everyone...this has been happening from time to time on the website...it's constantly in "flux."

I don't feel too bad; however, because my lottery allocation was really good (but I requested top dollar in almost every category...) However, even before the lottery I bought a hospitality gymnastics package because I was bound and determined to see finals of women's gymnastics at these Olympics.

Total ticket cost for this "Bucket List Event" my first Olympic experience. 17K. My brother who is getting married this month says it's about the cost of a wedding !!! Guess I'm marrying the Olympics...at least I don't have to buy any RINGS as the Olympics comes with 5 of them...

Could people post links to other websites they are monitoring for Olympic information besides the LOCOG and Cosport sites?

Thanks so much,

Mercury