The 2012 ticket race - Hope burns bright

Hello reader.  It’s been a while since I visited this subject, partly due to the minor inconvenience that is daily life, but moreover because the ticket hunt has diversified massively since my last proper dispatch in January.

It’s been nearly a year since the original LOCOG ballot was completed and people up-and-down the land learnt if they were going to the Games.  For many following that moment, they took a path of higher pursuit and challenge - to the victor, the spoils… and such.  For the rest, today’s official third round sale from LOCOG brings the ticket hunt back round full-circle.

And with 77 days left to the start of the London Games, opportunities to buy tickets are becoming both plentiful and challenging.

The Olympic Flame has now been lit in Greece, and will be on British soil in the next week.  To many observers the much anticipated fillip of enthusiasm for London 2012 will come with the Torch Relay.  So what can you do to maximise your chances of scoring some vital tickets before July..?



Unpicking LOCOG

There is plenty of material out there, especially on the official ticket website itself to explain the actual process, but in summary Round 3 will focus on two key groups:

  • The 20,000 who missed out on getting tickets in the first round ballot, and subsequent second round live sale.  These guys will get the first dibs from 11am, 11/5.
  • The remaining (estimated) one million applicants who tried and failed in the first round ballot but who didn’t come back for Round 2.  This group can join in the search from 11am, 13/5.

There is an understandable logic which suggests that most of the top tickets will be hoovered up by the ‘unlucky’ 20k in the first sale, but the heavily permutated sale procedure points to a lot of good tickets being left over for the second group - who in turn could leave some gems for all other interested parties when the general sale opens on 23/5.

How so?  Note this line from the ticketing guidelines:

“Only one transaction (a maximum of four tickets in one session) can be completed by each applicant during the presale period.”

This implies that for many buyers, they will have to make a difficult choice between either going for the Opening Ceremony versus the Men’s 100m Final in Athletics - as an example.  And this ruling applies to the second group as well.

Furthermore, the contingency ticketing numbers give a broad-brush picture of availability, but it would be naive in the extreme to assume that all 5000 Opening Ceremony tickets will be at lower category bands.  Eligible parties will have to make decisions based on their preference, and their wallet.

What this ultimately means is that notionally, the idea of only Football tickets being left for the general sale feels very wide of the mark: it is highly plausible that Athletics, Track Cycling and Swimming (albeit in the higher categories) could be left.  LOCOG and Ticketmaster may yet have devised a scheme that addresses the technical issues, gets a wide cross-section of interested parties to the Games and yet be fair to all groups of applicants.

And this is the Olympics.  There are only so many times one can have a false start before being disqualified…


The state of play, RIGHT NOW

European ATRs have, to use an American colloquialism, ‘blown-up’ in recent weeks and months, with the French, Belgian, Dutch and German resellers all having major sales.  At this stage many are looking to wipe their proverbial surfaces clean in preparation of processing and dispatching tickets to buyers in June.  This has created a tricky vacuum of waiting and seeing.  But, should you want to move quickly…

Germany (Dertour): At the end of April they had a spectacular dump of tickets including the largest FCFS sale of Track Cycling tickets seen to date.  While the prime tickets have gone, many remain including Badminton, Diving, Volleyball and Boxing.

Holland (ATP): Had a well publicised sale at the top of April; the site now has the remainders left, including some Hockey and Rowing.

France (FNAC/Eventeam): The much maligned Eventeam finally partnered with a proper webshop partner in FNAC to start selling their tranche of tickets outside of packages.  Prime stuff has gone to date, but plenty of tickets available for the likes of Handball, Canoe Slalom and Mountain Bike Cycling among others.

Denmark/EEA (Sportsworld): Very much applicable if you’re reading this on May 11 before 10am, but the brilliant UK-based, global-serving ATR will be shedding a load of their remaining allocation including BMX Cycling, Tennis and Basketball.

GB/EEA (Thomas Cook): the official Break Provider of London 2012 continues to offer a variety of ticket and hotel packages, including offers with Swimming and Athletics tickets.  They are expected to release more sessions with hotel combinations in the run-up to the Games.

The Olympic Stadium, Stratford, London

To the future

For avid ticket-hunters, like the incomparable 2012Tweeps, every sale feels like it’s the last one, yet the overall chase has continued to show that more opportunities emerge and present themselves.  Much is unknown about how leftover tickets both on the LOCOG, and ATR side, will be sold at Games time.  Many live ATRs are relying on buyer panic to resort to ‘blinking first‘ and paying high prices for additional (and often unwanted) hospitality and hotel deals.

This is likely to transition, and resellers such as CoSport and the recent Viagogo/Ariesta partnership in Spain will be ones to watch over the next month or two.

Darker horse ATRs, such as Baltic Clipper in Lithuania are planning their own sales of remaining tickets in the weeks ahead and the landscape as a whole is shifting at quite a pace.

Buyers need to remain discerning and patient, using popular channels and resources to gather intelligence on upcoming sales.  There are still plenty of tickets out there, and the fact that LOCOG are now back on the case selling their own tickets may just force some dormant European ATRs into a final frenzy of competition for sales.


Don’t forget the Paralympics!

In the midst of all the Olympic ticket announcements, the sale for all the remaining Paralympic tickets commences on 21/5.  This will be a fantastic sale which should bring many Athletics and Swimming finals tickets back into play, along with some well-priced Ceremony tickets.  The recent test events at the Olympic Park have shown the public and press alike the power of the Paralympic movement and the depth of quality and talent leading nations possess. 

The Paralympics remain a great opportunity to see top class sport at very reasonable prices in what will be the swan song for the Marshgate Lane site as we know it in 2012.

Paralympic Athletics

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.

London 2012: Tickets do not maketh the man

Reading the LOCOG statement on Friday to announce the suspension of the Resale site, my thoughts were with a ticket agency called The TicketSellers.  Seeing Ticketmaster held to account in such fashion must have given them a certain sense of schadenfreude.

To explain: The TicketSellers, a modest operation based in Birmingham, were appointed by British Swimming to sell tickets for their marquee event - the British Championships - at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, which takes place in March.  Whilst not part of the official London Prepares series of test events for London 2012, the Championships are the full dress rehearsal for swimming events at the site in Stratford and all the big names are scheduled to participate.  Throw in the fact that the tickets were going for an absolute steal (around £10 a pop) and demand was expected to be high among an expectant public of Team GB, Olympic and swimming fans.

When it came to launch day, it was a catastrophe as demand overran technology and thousands of potential customers were left frustrated.  The problems grew and manifested, causing British Swimming and their reseller to put the sale on ice for several days until they could sort out the technical problems.  Like LOCOG, British Swimming had to issue a mass e-mail communicating the suspension of sales - laying the blame firmly at the door of the Birmingham outfit.  Sadly, for reasons unknown to most, The TicketSellers could not resolve their difficulties and British Swimming a week later issued another mail to subscribers confirming that they proudly appointed Ticketmaster as their new reseller.  The e-mail was somewhat of a public slap for The TicketSellers.  Sure, they were probably too small an outfit for what was being asked of them, but you couldn’t help but feel a degree of sympathy for them.  One man’s entrepreneur is another man’s fall guy.

The same can’t be said for Ticketmaster.  British Swimming, like LOCOG before them, chose them for their global track-record, their infrastructure and expertise.  They sell tickets for a variety of events, globally, every day.  They are a recogniseable, respected brand.  Yet, with Resale to add the issues experienced with the live sale last Summer, the American outfit are fighting for their lives in the face of a furious customer - and potentially a million stakeholders.

Ticketing and London 2012 has been a dominant area of discussion for the last year.  Time will provide the ultimate statistics, but at face value the London Games feel like the most anticipated in the modern era.  It is both a credit to the city and the organisers, and a curse.  Huge expectations nearly always lead to disappointment in certain areas - and with many outlets and groups (certainly at a domestic level) keen to seize on errors and mistakes made, the slightest issue becomes a prominent one.

It’s not clear how much influence Ticketmaster have had on the overall ticketing strategy implemented for London 2012.  The first-round ballot posed more intrinsic questions rather than ones of technology - the feelings around the outcome have tended to be more emotional than factual.  The second round - which was a first-come, first-served affair, was a classic case of demand taking down the system.  This is not a problem exclusive to the London Olympics.  Talk to Take That fans who tried to get tickets for the Progress tour in 2010/11 - or annual Glastonbury festival-goers.  Excessive demand, spiked at a certain period nearly always brings down systems.  Ask anyone in IT administration, and they will tell you.  One of the crudest ways hackers look to invoke havoc for a certain website is to deploy an action which pummels it with requests over a number of seconds or minutes.  Most websites will yield in the end.

First-come, first-served always works best when demand can be staggered at manageable levels.  When people are seeking precious tickets for the foremost sporting event in the world, some difficulty is to be expected.  To the uninitiated, it should just work.  But there is always more to it than that.  The capitulation of the Resale site suggested that Ticketmaster didn’t resource the event appropriately - and you could understand why.  The window offered was for a month, and indications suggested reseller numbers would be low.  But as the old adage goes ‘fail to prepare - prepare to fail’, and they clearly didn’t count on a large number of resellers placing tickets back into the system and a very savvy buyer market keen to seize what they could.

You can be certain that Ticketmaster will have been working over the weekend to resolve the issues experienced to have things up and live for Monday.  LOCOG will be counting on it.  Resale feels very visceral right now, but before you know it this window will close, and thoughts will move to the much anticipated Spring sale of the estimated one million tickets.  This is where Ticketmaster will face its biggest judgement.

The feeling among many ticket hunters is why has it been so painful?  From the ballot process in round one, to the technology issues experienced in round two - and now Resale.  The experience has forced many to look abroad to secure tickets for the Games.  Ticket failures is not an alien subject for the Olympic Games - from Beijing to Sydney, the organising committee have had problems.  Advocates playing devil will point and scream ‘why haven’t we learnt!?’ - but look at the British public as stakeholder groups to see the problems.

You have local residents of Newham who feel they deserve entitlement, likewise those who are part of sports clubs and associations across the country.  Then all those people who like to say ‘I’m a taxpayer…’; then there are fans of individual sports, fans of the Olympic Games and fans of London staging a premier event in world class stadia.  Not forgetting those who have disposable income who can afford to buy, and those operating at the opposite scale.  And of course, those dirty, rotten sponsors who of course contribute no money to the organising and operation of the Games but somehow end up with all the plum tickets - for ‘free’!

No one - no expert, no newspaper, no independent group has dared offered an alternative solution as to how the tickets for London 2012 should have been sold - and by a solution, one that would placate all the stakeholder groups above.  And ensure an even spread amongst them all. 

The reason for this, of course, is that it’s not possible.  And the emotive nature of having, and not having will inform most of the arguments around ticketing right the way through to July 27.  Of course Resale should have worked properly the first time.  Of course the system should be able to handle a mass of activity at the same time.  But most people remember what it was like before supermarkets became 24-hour operations: everyone went on a Saturday, things sold out and there were massive queues and an awful shopping experience.  Expansion of operational times meant the experience could change exponentially and now Saturdays are nowhere near as bad as they used to be.

Different events offer different ticketing systems - some focus on spread, others focus on demand - some try to balance between the two.  LOCOG, of course, have the ultimate responsibility so are liable for the ultimate hit - but they haven’t done as badly as most may think.  And they cannot control how their suppliers operate and execute their operations.

Ticketmaster may in turn point to the fact that, unlike a lot of their daily activity, they are not profiting from sales in the way they would from a common concert ticket transaction - and this from an end-user perspective is true.  Had there been licence for booking and admin ‘fees’, who knows what enhanced operations they could offer - though we all know how it would have been received.

The hysteria has to be compartmentalised - the failure of the Resale website is no more an indication that the London Games are going to be a failure, any more than seeing a typo in a national newspaper indicate the articles are being written by monkeys. 

As for The TicketSellers - well, they are back to doing what they do best.  Who knows, they may get another shot at the big time sooner than they thought. 

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.