The organising committee of the London Olympics (LOCOG) has finally published full details of ticketing at the Olympic Games, including how many were eventually sold to the public rather than given away to sponsors and dignitaries, and how many tickets were available in each price category.
Despite the fact that the public and press have been baying and begging for this information for most of the past year, LOCOG have chosen to publish their report as quietly as possible, without any accompanying press releases or events, and right upon the cusp of Christmas, at the same time as the UK media is sizzling with news stories left, right and centre. Almost as though they would like to keep some of the facts as quiet as possible; after all, they have managed to convince us that the Games were an immense success.
Which, in the main, I agree with. I don't want to say goodbye to 2012; the Olympics brought much happy spirit to the city of London and its people, and I don't think Londoners will ever be the same again.
That happy spirit wasn't about the ticketing, though. While I was delighted to secure my one Olympic ticket, to the WAG qualifying, at 10.30 on the night before the competition (it was a lifelong ambition realised) I was less pleased to see all the empty seats around me, knowing how many of my friends would have given an arm and a leg to be there if only they could have managed to navigate the many barriers that were put in their way and which made obtaining tickets far too difficult for the majority. I have never before seen regiments of soldiers occupying whole sections of a gymnastics arena. LOCOG does not mention its somewhat desperate rent a crowd efforts designed to make relatively empty arenas look full, and indeed we are now hearing about 'sell out' events. This may be true of certain sports, but not of the gymnastics. You just had to use your eyes to see this.
Of course, having all the data available isn't necessarily a good thing as it's rather indigestible and difficult to interpret. I need some time to print out the key sections and read them properly, to avoid misrepresenting what is there. There are some apparently simple data: overall, 59% of tickets for the artistic gymnastics were sold to the public; I find this a surprisingly high percentage but that is what the figures say. I have, however, noticed that for certain events, in certain price categories, the figure comes down to as low as 35%. In other words, you might say, about two thirds of these tickets were given away to sponsors and dignitaries, presumably the top priced tickets for the premium finals, which might explain why there were so many empty seats visible on our TV screens, even towards the end of the competition.
The, there are the unfathomables : for example, were rent-a-crowd counted as sold, or unsold? Are all these statistics strictly accurate? I remain convinced that there was an almighty balls-up in the initial ballot that left so many of us disappointed. Ticketing will remain a thorn in the side of the London Olympic Games.
I'm still very glad I managed to be there, though.
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