The 2012 ticket race - The Finish Line

As I write this we are just over a month away from the closing throes of the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Danny Boyle’s extravaganza will have blown-up Twitter and the mood will be set for the city, and the nation. The morning after of course, the real business of sport commences. And for those of you who have looked - or continue to look - for tickets, the klaxon for getting business done really resonates now.

The beauty of a blaring klaxon in a scenario like this means there is time to act. Not much mind…


THE STATE OF PLAY

Firstly, there are still Olympic tickets left to buy! Estimates released by LOCOG indicate there will be around a million left to sell before Games-time, though this number is impacted by the presence of the many Football tickets left to shift. Needless to stay, marquee events within Athletics, Swimming, Ceremonies and Track Cycling remain hard to get hold of; given that more information has been released about the Olympic Park prospective buyers should look to buy tickets for any sport on the site, which in turn will give them access to stick around, absorb the atmosphere and catch other events on the big screens.

Sports outside of the Olympic Park, such as Volleyball remain easy to get hold of but expensive categories are the ones being left for latecomers as the cheaper seats are snapped up quickly.

Critically, buyers have the choice of several ATRs and LOCOG itself to buy tickets. But time is the essential matter. While retaining a poker face and hoping for late releases (or even turning up on the day of events for Wimbledon-style queuing) may yet pay off, the advice is that if you have identified something you want to attend and can buy it - do!


TO ATR OR NOT?

The European ATRs have been the backbone of many a ticket-hunter’s armoury for the past year, and several continue to have their webshops open for business to sell those last-minute tickets.

They key thing to bear in mind in dealing with ATRs at this stage is whether they can get the tickets you want in time. Many members of the most preeminent of Olympic ticket group, the 2012Tweeps, have only started to receive deliveries from European vendors. It’s worth engaging with the ATRs prior to purchase to ensure they can get your tickets delivered in time - or dealing with ATRs who will have London-based centres to allow personal collection of tickets.

It will soon be a strange sight visiting many websites that have been synonymous with the search for Olympic tickets and find that they have closed their doors for good on London 2012.


THE REMAINING OPTIONS

Having been mired in the shadows for many months, the official LOCOG website is now the definitive portal to buy outstanding tickets. Recent big releases of contingency seating across all sports have led to many fans getting hold of dream tickets at their intended face-value. Ticketmaster have in turn now developed a mechanism to allow for effective resale, meaning there are daily releases of tickets on the website. They key for anyone is to regularly visit the site, become familiar with the sports and sessions they want to buy and be ready to act - rapidly.

In Europe, Germany’s Dertour, Belgium’s Suseia, Holland’s ATP and Spain’s Aristeia/Viagogo tie-up continue to hold small batches of tickets left in a number of sports for immediate purchase.

France remain a goldmine for a number of key sports, with both the ticket-only venture and hospitality website offering several different sessions - just be prepared to pay for steep mark-ups and access to the infamous Club France!

Other cross-territory ATRs, such as CoSport and Sportsworld are on their very last legs in terms of inventory available but are worth monitoring given their plans for ‘will call’ facilities in Central London for the Games.

Thomas Cook continue to offer ticket and hotel packages, and they are slowly cutting prices after long periods of inactivity. The recommendation - go to your local branch as opposed to the online estate, where you stand a better chance of getting a good deal on Olympic Park tickets.

LOCOG’s own Prestige Hospitality is in overdrive on offering remaining tickets with daily adverts in the Metro newspaper, complete 10% discount codes! Steep pockets needed of course, but again a viable option if desperate.


KEY RESOURCES

Twitter is a fountain of knowledge on the art of ticket-hunting - standout figures such as @Volshy, @Matt_Shoreditch, @NMDouglas and @2012Tweeps are worth following for the latest developments.

The 2012Tweeps have helped Olympians, both in Britain and beyond, secure tickets for London 2012; a genuine, knowledgeable, friendly community online and more reputable than other resource online.

Kevin Plasmans’ OS Site Tracker remains invaluable in getting updates for when various websites update their stock with new tickets.

Plugins, such as Update Scanner for Firefox are fantastic for having extra eyes on websites that sell tickets; and the WebWatch app for iPhone is a very useful tool to have on the move.

Finally, always consult the official London 2012 ticketing website for guidance on approved ATRs.


I CALL UPON THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD

This represents my last ‘Ticket Race’ blog - bar a retrospective on my experiences which will be live soon. As alluded to throughout the piece, the end of searching for tickets is very near. In just over six weeks time, the Olympics will be over - so the time to cherish what we have to look forward to is right now.

I plan to shift attention to writing other pieces on London 2012 before, during and after Games-time, as well as sharing images and video of what will be an amazing time for our country.

I hope you will come back to read these stories. I thank anyone and everyone who’s read, shared and used these blogs to help their own search for Olympic tickets. A year has flown by, which usually means the experience has been an enjoyable one. Who am I to disagree?


To E20!

Read more about me and London 2012.

The 2012 ticket race - LOCOG strike back

A funny thing happened when I clocked Twitter on Sunday morning.  I had a lie-in, so it was past 11 and I was greeted with a plethora of retweets.  Practically all were from Olympic ticket hunters, about other Olympic ticket hunters and the hay they were making following the opening of LOCOG’s third-round sale.  People were buying tickets - good tickets - and the website was holding-up in ways that haven’t been seen over the past year.

Ticketmaster and their bosses seem to have finally cracked a way to control demand and flow on their web estate, and the masterstroke of positioning ticket hunters to make a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ of sorts due to the ‘4 tickets/1 session’ rule means that lots of sessions are still left over for prime events.

The good news for London 2012 organisers started on Friday morning when the doors opened for the ‘unlucky‘ 20000.  Soon social media networks were filling with news of folk landing Opening Ceremony and Athletics sessions at good prices.  It was even reported that some of the highly sought-after £20.12 tickets came up for sale, albeit for a brief period.  Any frustrations being logged were borne more from hunters who perhaps were too slow on the draw to get the tickets they want.  Fast forward to today, and there was more of the same, this time for some of the reported one million who missed out in the first-round sale a year ago this month.

The staggered release of tickets is playing a big part in the overall experience, and is placing more onus on hunters to do their homework and be discerning in what they are looking for.  Monday’s (14/5) will arguably be the biggest test yet for this new age of happiness and reliability as sessions for Swimming and Track Cycling become available.  Survive that, and the team in Canary Wharf could finally afford themselves some Bolt-like celebrations.

Drilling into some of the detail, and the perhaps the performance of the sales reflect some long-held thoughts about the profile of people buying.  For starters, these sales aren’t for the hardcore, like the 2012Tweeps, who have utilised the rules and laws to buy from authorised ATRs in Europe.  Many ‘applicants‘ have been found to want tickets more from a passive position (i.e. just to be there etc.), which goes someway to explain why so many tickets have rolled over.  Moreover, many other hunters have simply been found to have budget constraints and ceilings which has limited what they can go for in this third-round. 

The availability left provides a telling insight on the original ballot; that far from applicants applying for wide-ranges of tickets, more seem to have applied for select events and categories rather than spreading choices and preferences around.  More may have been successful after all if they pushed to get tickets in slightly higher categories, not from the point of greed but more because the demographic of the average hunter was more likely to pitch for lower categories at any and all times.  Sadly the only beneficiaries from this collective journey will the organisers of Rio 2016, and beyond.

By the time the general sale opens on May 23, LOCOG could have gone a long way toward burying the negative stories and reports on tickets.  Many more people who wanted to go to the Olympic Games in London will now do so.  Happy endings are sprouting everywhere on Twitter.  And with the Torch Relay due to begin in earnest the predicted surge in opinion and interest is coming through on the home straight in the nick of time.

And for those without tickets, there is still time…

Read more about me and London 2012.

The 2012 ticket race - A seller’s market?

Many of the athletes aspiring to compete in London this summer are familiar with the expression known as ‘hitting the wall.’  It was even deconstructed quite nicely in the genteel 2007 movie ‘Run Fatboy Run’.

Ticketmaster, the appointed ticketing agent of London 2012 hit their latest wall just over a week ago with the failure of their Resale website.  The site was taken down some 24 hours after launch and a week has passed without a firm resolution.  It’s clear that senior figures and technical leads have been looking at a number of solutions and now sources indicate that when the Resale site opens (which could be as early as today), the user experience will have significantly changed and - most critically, be focused on allowing those who want to sell their tickets only.  There would be no onward ‘resale’ element to allow buyers to come on and purchase the unwanted tickets.

The BBC have taken the lead on this approach and intimate that LOCOG’s focus will be on getting back all the unwanted tickets as a priority and so ensuring that touting efforts are impacted.  This strikes as a very risky move: in saying to sellers they will pick-up all unwanted tickets at face value, there is a strong chance that many Football, Volleyball and Wrestling tickets will be returned.  Considering these are the sports that have been the hardest to shift both domestically and across ATR sales, there is a good chance many could remain unsold right up to Games time.

Furthermore, merging any resale tickets with the magic ‘million’ planned for LOCOG sale 3 in the Spring poses more questions around how that will eventually be handled.  Trust and confidence in Ticketmaster being able to handle a ‘first-come, first-served’ sale is rock bottom.

This blog has theorised an idea of splitting the spring sale into two, given the proximity of the London Prepares events.  Adding a plethora of resale tickets only further intensifies the options available to purchase tickets through the official channels in the UK. 

Of course, the speculation could prove to be a red herring - and that maybe a sale ‘window’ will open shortly after a period of resale activity.  Interestingly, this could give preference to those who missed out in the first two LOCOG sales in 2011 - so making the third sale in Spring a clean race for all would-be parties interested in buying, and negating one of the more difficult intricacies that came from the sale process to date.

Many have vented their anger over the process and now ticket-hunters ultimately have to wait to see what emerges.  The wall will be broken shortly, but will Ticketmaster stay the course to the finish line?

ATR LATEST

Chatter is high around the next major ATR sale, which will see Germany’s Dertour put their remaining tickets up for sale on January 25.  Details are fluid, but expect an AM start and a first-come, first-served system.  Slovakia’s Kolumbus recently issued an e-mail underlying their remaining travel and ticket packages for London 2012 - they have a lot of interesting tickets left and will definitely be one to watch in the next month or two should they revert to a straight ticket sale.  Scandinavia’s CoSport inventory of available tickets for both the Olympics and Paralympics is starting to dwindle, so any interested buyers should move quickly - the same goes for France’s Eventeam.  Finland’s ATR have a small number of tickets available, but they are within the pricier categories.
Belgium’s Suseia appear to have closed their sale period, but it is unconfirmed whether they will release more tickets soon.  Switzerland’s Globetrotter have now confirmed that they are sold-out.  Cyprus’ Topkinesis and Luxembourg’s Emile Weber have shown flickers of availability in recent days, but remain untested quantities.  This applies also to the Czech Republic’s Ticketstream.

Read more about me and London 2012.

The 2012 ticket race - nearing the home straight… HEAT 2

Since the ‘first heat’ on Thursday, Resale has been and subsequently closed.  While the recriminations will play out over the weekend and early next week, for the periods it was open expectations were both met - and slightly surpassed.

While it was no surprise to see top-end tickets put up for sale (i.e. Cat AA and A), the smattering of C and D categories available, especially for much sought-after events like Track Cycling and Swimming was a real surprise.  One can only hope that after Ticketmaster have resolved their problems this trend will continue.


GETTING FRIENDS & FAMILY TO THE GAMES

An increasingly prominent story in various press outlets is around how owners of tickets can share their allocation with friends and family, especially if they cannot attend.  In reality, many of the tickets in circulation will end up in the hands of friends and loved-ones of buyers.  Without question many people would have got tickets over the Christmas period as gifts.

There is a natural unease about the feasibility of passing tickets on, given LOCOG’s intended stance on touts and illegal ticket sales.

However, between the likes of Paul Deighton (Chief Executive of LOCOG) and various figures at the Metropolitan Police, it seems certain that if ticket owners manage their allocations in good faith, there shouldn’t be problems in the event that they do not attend.

It is likely that in the event of unusual activity (a possible example is a large group of people all attending the same block or row of a venue - a classic tell of a tout sale), the named ticket owner will need to be on-hand for a quick check via telephone.

Throw in the need for security checks at venues along with transport considerations, and the likely outcome will be quick entry into venues.


DEALING WITH ATRs

ATR = Authorised Ticket Reseller

While many people chose to stamp their feet and scream blue murder at LOCOG after the the first and second official ticket sales in the UK last year (and now Resale) - a relatively silent contingent went about exploring the legitimacy of Olympic ticket sales on a global stage.

There are 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) around the world.  Each committee, with every Olympic and Paralympic games is entitled to an allocation of tickets to sell in their respective territory.  Several NOCs will partner with one large service provider who can handle all the technology and communications with customers (CoSport and Kingdom Sports are two prime examples).  Other NOCs will appoint local agents to work with in order to get tickets sold.

These agents and providers are what are known as ATRs.  Different ATRs sell to different territories with different allocations depending on the associated NOC’s size and Olympic pedigree.  In most cases, sales are restricted to national boundaries - that is, a resident Briton cannot buy tickets directly from the Sri Lankan ATR, as an example.

But Europe (yep, that wretched despot that we should all be out of…) has offered different rules.  Being part of the European Union has meant that while several of our cousins have been able to buy tickets through the UK sale, UK residents have been able in turn to get tickets from a variety of European ATRs.  And not just non-event tickets - from Athletics to Wrestling, to Swimming, Judo and Rowing there have many success stories.

Many ATRs concluded their sales in 2011, and are unlikely to offer more tickets before the Games start.  However, a lot of ATR business is centred around package sales (i.e. flights, hotels and tickets).  It’s entirely plausible as Games time approaches - and if there are no takers - that unsold packages will be dismantled and tickets placed on general sale.

It can seem daunting to the uninitiated, especially as some of the European ATRs don’t have ‘friendly’ web interfaces that some may be used to back home - and other ATRs don’t have their websites in English which can be a source of total fear.  But Google Translate and the heart of Derek Redmond should see you on the path to Olympic glory.  You do not need to be a techie or have six languages to look around and see what the approved European ATRs have in store.  Many before you have, and succeeded.


LOOKING TO LOCOG 3… AND 4?

Whilst the Synchronised Swimming saga dominated domestic headlines earlier in the week, the sub-plot to LOCOG’s actions centres around how many of the mooted one million tickets planned for sale in LOCOG 3 (i.e. their third official sale, planned for April) will have been lost to the compensation program offered to those affected.

Of a million or tickets, there won’t be a huge dent.  But clearly some prime sports and events will be impacted in terms of their availability.  Interestingly, several sources confirmed that events such as Swimming, Athletics, Diving, Beach Volleyball, Gymnastics, Hockey and Basketball were offered in the exchange deals - suggesting they are all prime areas of focus in LOCOG 3.

Given that the premise of the third sale is centred around the finalising of venue configuration and capacity, it seems unlikely all of the tickets will go on sale at the same time.  By April, the London Prepares series (the official test program for London 2012) would have seen events completed at the Velodrome, Aquatics Centre, Basketball and Handball Arenas among others.  But, the Olympic Stadium, Hockey Centre and Water Polo Arena will not see test events until May.

Given the need to create fervour and excitement in the final rundown to the main event, coupled with the fact that a number of test events will not start until May, it seems probable that there will be a fourth LOCOG sale, encompassing the very last dregs rechieved back from ATRs and sponsors, the leftovers from LOCOG 3 and the confirmed numbers for Athletics, Water Polo and Hockey.  All speculation at this stage, but worth thinking about in the broader context of the race.

Read more about me and London 2012.