Olympic Tickets or the 2012 rip off

Bri - the last comments were actually aimed at 454697819. I know people have evey chance to attend but I was trying to put his comments into perspective. (I understand the travelling despite it being cheaper to leave the country than fly internally unlike most countries) Probably the furthest people away from it yet they still have to pay for it too and they are least likely to attend and not just for financial reasons.

I'm not whinging I know now I cant afford to go - i dislike the practice they have put in place to get tickets. I think that is putting a lot of people off - the ones that think they could possible afford to go but the uncertainity puts them off - I would be in that category.
as for changing the tickets price we know it ain't going to happen. and even if it did peopel would still not be happy.

I don't care whether it costs £10 a ticket or £10,000. I won't go either way. The whole thing is a pointless, pointless waste of (everyone's) money in my eyes.

[Bri w]

Originally Posted by Quedos

I'm not whinging I know now I cant afford to go - i dislike the practice they have put in place to get tickets. I think that is putting a lot of people off - the ones that think they could possible afford to go but the uncertainity puts them off - I would be in that category.
as for changing the tickets price we know it ain't going to happen. and even if it did peopel would still not be happy.

abi, I'm in the same catagory as you with the ticketing. I'm not commiting to something that is so vague. I can get to London for almost nothing, apart from a 4.5hr drive, and can stay for nothing but the ticketing process is just rubbish. Bet the likes of Beckham et al won't have any problem at all getting a ticket for a decent seat for whatever event he likes - now that does p!$$ me off.

The tv is big enough, and the picture crystal clear, and doesn't have someone's head in the way. The sofa is big and comfy, and there'll be beer in the fridge. Plus there'll be close up's/reruns/slo-mo's of the exciting bits.

And for those that are lucky enough to get the seats they want via the ballot. Good luck to them, and I hope they enjoy it.

and don't forget to add on the cost of food and drink, what do you reckon everything £5, burger, can of coke, sarnie, no thanks. If people fall for the hype, save up their hard earned and want to waste it on the olympics good luck to them, i'll watch it on the tele, can i have a tax rebate now

Well I'm a massive pro Olympics fan.......but the ticketing and overall pricing is scandalous. The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt (gimme a C), said on the Marr show last weekend that he thought there was an obligation to price high to recoup costs. Bollox. It'll be lip service savings only. If the public pays and, like I said I'm a fan, then make it bloody affordable.
Give yes give the tickets to the local club athletic coaches and clubs around the country, the stalwarts who keep their respective sports alive around the UK, sailing, cycling whatever.
Maybe I just want the Olympics to suceed too much or maybe I just hate Jeremy expenses scandal Hunt too much.

Written on blackberry excuse typos

Well I'm a massive pro Olympics fan.......but the ticketing and overall pricing is scandalous. The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt (gimme a C), said on the Marr show last weekend that he thought there was an obligation to price high to recoup costs. Bollox. It'll be lip service savings only. If the public pays and, like I said I'm a fan, then make it bloody affordable.
Give yes give the tickets to the local club athletic coaches and clubs around the country, the stalwarts who keep their respective sports alive around the UK, sailing, cycling whatever.
Maybe I just want the Olympics to suceed too much or maybe I just hate Jeremy expenses scandal Hunt too much.

Written on blackberry excuse typos

Originally Posted by Bri w

But through taxes, and Lottery money, we paid for the build NOT for tickets. And quite why the cost of travel has anything whatsoever to do with it is beyond me other than being used as a tenuous link to strengthen an (weak) argument.

When I took my two boys, and Mrs w to see the British Open it was £250 to get in and £220 for a night in a hotel(2 rooms) + fuel + typical event prices for food and drink. But that's the going rate for an event like that. It's over £100 when we go and see the excitement that Middlesbrough football club produce, and that's for 90 mins dire 'entertainment.'

So what would you expect to pay to see the best in the world for x hours? I agree the method of getting the tickets is cr@p and the prices for some events is steep but on the whole I can't see what all the whinging is about...

Bri, all the sports you mention above are proffesional sports and charge what the market will bare. While people are willing to pay say th prices you mention they will continue to do it but of course the double edge sword is that they could end up pricing out their core customy base.

The Olympics on the other hand is an amateur event. It is not here to make money, but merely to pay for itself as a celebration of sport all over the world. You should not therefore compare them as they are totally different. In some ways it would be better to bump up the TV rites and give the tickets away free and allow for the boost to the local economy through catering hotels and general tourism to make your money.

[Bri w]

Originally Posted by Rog

Bri, all the sports you mention above are proffesional sports and charge what the market will bare. While people are willing to pay say th prices you mention they will continue to do it but of course the double edge sword is that they could end up pricing out their core customy base.

The Olympics on the other hand is an amateur event. It is not here to make money, but merely to pay for itself as a celebration of sport all over the world. You should not therefore compare them as they are totally different. In some ways it would be better to bump up the TV rites and give the tickets away free and allow for the boost to the local economy through catering hotels and general tourism to make your money.

rog, the athletes may be amatuers but the balance of paying for the stadia, the staffing of the stadia, the ultilities for the stadia, the marshalling and policing of the stadia, the marketing of the games, the maintanance of the stadia, the running costs of the Olympic villages, the feeding of the athletes, the busing them to the various venues. The tooth fairy won't pay for those.

If those costs were passed onto the Tv companies, or other commercial companies, e.g. Visa, who will end up paying in the long run. Push those costs too far onto the commercial organisations and then you lose the commercial sponsors. If the commercial organisations take their money elsewhere then the various individual sponsorships (pretend jobs) paid to athletes will go with them.

When the dust settles, even with the crazy pricing for some events, the games will almost certainly make a loss. But the various franchising, tourism etc will make plenty, which will filter back into the economy. And in that respect we'll all be winners, albeit with a small w.

Originally Posted by Bri w

So what would you expect to pay to see the best in the world for x hours? I agree the method of getting the tickets is cr@p and the prices for some events is steep but on the whole I can't see what all the whinging is about...

Originally Posted by Bri w

Ed, what an individual can afford, and what is sensible pricing are different issues.

Looking at some of the pricing, e.g. over £2k for a prime seat at the mens 100m final, it smacks of profiteering. But compared to the prices of tickets for top events in this country the majority of tickets are priced there or there abouts.

Once upon a time I could take the boys(men now) and Barbs to the footie for what was a reasonable amount based against earnings. Within 5 yrs that was no longer affordable on a regular basis. Unfortunately that's now mirrored for the vast majority of events. However, if you go abroad for top events its very affordable - we can fly to Portugal, stay 5 days and watch the Portuguese Masters for what it costs for 1 night, and tickets to the Open.

Maybe the discussion should be about ripoff Britain?

I agree that sensibility and affordability are not linked. A sensible price for a luxury, may have no relation to whether or not an individual can afford that luxury. £20 quid is a great price for a nice bottle of Champagne, but that doesn't mean you can afford to drink a couple of bottles a week.

From some of the things you've alluded to above, it looks to me like you agree with Ed's complaint that the pricing isn't sensible though. Just because it's on a par with some other top sporting events, doesn't mean it's a sensible price. Take football as one of the worst offenders, and probably the culprit in terms of inflating sports events prices to this level, if footballers were paid sensible salaries, ticket prices also might be a bit more sensible. There is a hell of a lot of money floating around in football, that just wasn't there 15 or 20 years ago, but do they play any more fixtures, or pay 1000x more to maintain a stadium? No, it's just a grossly inflated artificial flow of money.

Sport IMO should be vocational. You do it because you love it and because you are driven to be the best. It's not so long ago that Rugby Union was not a professional sport, but the National teams still attracted Europe's best Rugby players and the Six Nations was still a massive event, as does and is the Olympics. The Rugby being played over the past few weeks is not "better quality" sport than the rugby that was played pre-1995. Now that sport has all this money flowing around, it's nigh on impossible to get rid of it, but it shouldn't NEED it to function.

Back to the Champagne though. Next time your in the North of France go into a wine shop and ask to be recommended a Cremant D' Alsace, or a Cremant D' Burgoyne. Exactly the same as champagne, made with the same grapes, using the same processes, but not made in the Champagne region near Reims, so can't be sold as "Champagne", and will be 1/2 the price. Is the cost of production double because your inside some line on a map? No, Champagne is just a rip off too. There is actually no such thing as a "sensible" price on luxury goods, somebody's always making more money than they would do if they were selling bread and milk. Sporting events really do take the pi$$ though.

Originally Posted by Bri w

rog, the athletes may be amatuers but the balance of paying for the stadia, the staffing of the stadia, the ultilities for the stadia, the marshalling and policing of the stadia, the marketing of the games, the maintanance of the stadia, the running costs of the Olympic villages, the feeding of the athletes, the busing them to the various venues. The tooth fairy won't pay for those.

So why are sporting events so much cheaper in other countries? Don't they have the same costs?

The answer is because this is rip off Britain, and we as a nation allow the gravy train to run 24/7/365. The will be any number of organisations out there that are make shedloads of money out of this event, and in the all of the costs you have mentioned above there will be huge pots of money wasted and flittered away by those in charge.

The same reason why it costs the UK many times more per mile to construct a motorway, than our counterparts in Europe. We are the worlds experts in wasting money, spending it twice, and convincing ourselves that we need to spend on things that we don't actually need and doesn't provide any benefit, especially when we have our paws on the public purse.