Olympic tickets – computer says no

Olympic tickets. Two words that can bring the fiercest vitriol from even the most sedate of personalities.

Unless you got lucky, of course. Then they are two words that equal unbridled joy and excitement.

Me? I fall somewhere in the middle. I always thought bagging tickets to the popular events – athletics, cycling, swimming et al – was gonna be tough. Have you ever tried to get tickets in the lottery that is Wimbledon? Or tried to get a place in the London Marathon? I have, and failed on all occasions. Perhaps I have been unlucky, or perhaps I am a realist.

Even so, I always thought I would get to see one session of the popular events. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but every athletics event I’ve ever watched has always had streams of empty seats for the morning sessions. How wrong I was.

Now I’m not about blow a load of hot air about the whole process. Far from it. The mainstream media have done plenty of that already, playing into the hands of LOCOG who must (secretly) be lapping up how we have all been whipped into a frenzy.

I foresaw all this and that was why I applied to be a Games Maker. Not just to get to the Games, but to be a real part of it and actually take something away from the experience that wasn’t a piece of over-priced merchandise.

In fact, I think the ticket process – despite some minor gripes – has been about as good as it could be. To go with a ‘first come, first served’ system from the off would have been a bigger disaster, as popular events would have got snapped up by touts. To do a lottery was fair.

The real issue for me was around the limits people could order. Surely it would have made sense to restrict how many tickets people could order based on popularity and then to one session per application?

LOCOG would have had an idea of the level of interest in each sport as those who had signed up to the tickets website last year had to specify what they were interested in buying. You can’t help but wonder if that data influenced the process chosen, with LOCOG realising there was not much interest outside of the big events.

I am disappointed not to have got anything and feel for people not even registered. My Dad is one. ‘There’s always seats for morning athletics,’ I think was his line to me. He may still be right, with 1m tickets on sale later in the year and the re-sale site.

Ah, the re-sale site – something I was pinning my hopes on. But now we have found out that people will be able to sell unwanted tickets to family and friends, so now I’m not convinced.

I have no axe to grind with the ticket process – it’s the same for everyone at the end of the day. All I know is I want people to stop going on about it now.

There are so many great stories behind the Olympics – like this rather wonderful piece by Dave Hill on the The Guardian website – that aren’t getting much air time or comment. So, please, can we stop talking about tickets now. Pretty please.