Easy 10
Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Does EVERYTHING have to be done online these days ?
For large sporting events, what did people do before the internet ? You know, prior to about 1993 ? People either called phonelines, or did a good old-fashioned session of QUEUING UP.
Never mind this ridiculous online ballot system, where people sit on their arse and with a few clicks, idly commit themselves to potentially thousands of pounds worth of tickets without even knowing what the FRIG they're going to end up with. Where's the sense in that ?
This should have gone OLD SCHOOL. A network of ticket booths set up around the nation, all selling tickets for a variety of Olympic events. Set a limit of no more than 6 tickets per person for any one event, and you want to go, you QUEUE for it. The keenest / most desperate will get there earliest and queue the longest. The size of your bank balance doesn't come into it - its boils down to how BADLY you want to go.
People are prepared to camp out all night to buy spare tickets for Wimbledon. They're prepared to camp out to buy the latest iPad, or iPhone, or Halo 6: The Maiming. So why not have people camping out for Olympic tickets ?
"Queuing" nowadays requires no effort. It involves being sat there alone in front of a monitor with your hand poised over your mouse waiting for a blue bar to pass along the screen, whilst having a crafty shandy at a Redtube window you flick over to now and then. There's no real EFFORT involved, which is why it gets so hopelessly oversubscribed by millions of people who are, in reality, fairly "meh" about whether they get those tickets or not.
In 2004, we had to physically queue, in the real world, for our Playoff Final tickets. Totally fair, all above board, the earlier you got there the more chance you had of getting the tickets you wanted. And there was some CAMARADERIE involved. Bringing people together for a common cause, all on the same mission, talking excitedly about the event they were so desperate to see they were prepared to sacrifice a few hours in their day to make suer they could get there.
Getting tickets online for the big sporting events is just too damn easy these days. People should have to EARN the right to those tickets by going out and GETTING them, not just by sitting on their arses clicking away on a website.
The internet has made us lazy and complacent. We've missed a trick here - the selling of tickets for the London Olympics could have been organised into a national event in itself, with official ticketing centres set up everywhere, entertainment, beer tents, whatever, just bringing people together in a vast, excited, happy queuing FRENZY. Instead, its gone out to the laptop generation who can succeed or fail depending on how much they can afford to gamble, at the click of a mouse.
BOOOOO !
For large sporting events, what did people do before the internet ? You know, prior to about 1993 ? People either called phonelines, or did a good old-fashioned session of QUEUING UP.
Never mind this ridiculous online ballot system, where people sit on their arse and with a few clicks, idly commit themselves to potentially thousands of pounds worth of tickets without even knowing what the FRIG they're going to end up with. Where's the sense in that ?
This should have gone OLD SCHOOL. A network of ticket booths set up around the nation, all selling tickets for a variety of Olympic events. Set a limit of no more than 6 tickets per person for any one event, and you want to go, you QUEUE for it. The keenest / most desperate will get there earliest and queue the longest. The size of your bank balance doesn't come into it - its boils down to how BADLY you want to go.
People are prepared to camp out all night to buy spare tickets for Wimbledon. They're prepared to camp out to buy the latest iPad, or iPhone, or Halo 6: The Maiming. So why not have people camping out for Olympic tickets ?
"Queuing" nowadays requires no effort. It involves being sat there alone in front of a monitor with your hand poised over your mouse waiting for a blue bar to pass along the screen, whilst having a crafty shandy at a Redtube window you flick over to now and then. There's no real EFFORT involved, which is why it gets so hopelessly oversubscribed by millions of people who are, in reality, fairly "meh" about whether they get those tickets or not.
In 2004, we had to physically queue, in the real world, for our Playoff Final tickets. Totally fair, all above board, the earlier you got there the more chance you had of getting the tickets you wanted. And there was some CAMARADERIE involved. Bringing people together for a common cause, all on the same mission, talking excitedly about the event they were so desperate to see they were prepared to sacrifice a few hours in their day to make suer they could get there.
Getting tickets online for the big sporting events is just too damn easy these days. People should have to EARN the right to those tickets by going out and GETTING them, not just by sitting on their arses clicking away on a website.
The internet has made us lazy and complacent. We've missed a trick here - the selling of tickets for the London Olympics could have been organised into a national event in itself, with official ticketing centres set up everywhere, entertainment, beer tents, whatever, just bringing people together in a vast, excited, happy queuing FRENZY. Instead, its gone out to the laptop generation who can succeed or fail depending on how much they can afford to gamble, at the click of a mouse.
BOOOOO !
