Olympic tickets - why did it HAVE to be done online ?

[Easy 10]

Sounds GREAT. Would you need TICKETS for it?

Some kind of online ballot, yes.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It's far to cheaper to run and organise. Phone lines and ticketing offices require staff. A website just requires servers for hosting.

I sort of see where you're coming from but personally I CANNOT STAND queuing to spend my money. If I'm parting with my hard earned then I expect people to be queuing up to take my money, not the other way round.

I walk out of a shop if there's a queue and go elsewhere. I'd sooner wander around spending my time looking for a shop without a queue than actually spend the time queuing

Same. I'm surprised I've not been barred from the Co-op the number of times I've dumped a full basket in the checkout area and walked out because there's only one till open, all the staff have found other more pleasant and non-essential things to do rather than serve their customers, while some old dear fannies arond at the front of the queue. The feeling of just walking out and making the unbought basket of groceries their problem rather than yours is IMMENSE.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

(I was more a 'Shaven Haven Leave em Cravin' man meself)

Was it you dumping all the jazz mags in the woods behind where I used to live? What is it about woodland environments that made people fly tip quantities of porn all over the place? Or perhaps that was just in Hurstpierpoint You never hear John Craven and Ben Fogle discussing THAT form of pollution on Countryfile, do you?

Ooops, I digress. Anyway. Tickets. Ahem.

 

[Colossal Squid]

Same. I'm surprised I've not been barred from the Co-op the number of times I've dumped a full basket and walked out because there's only one till open, all the staff have found other more pleasant and non-essential things to do than serve their customers while some old dear fannies arond at the front of the queue. The feeling of just walking out and making the unbought basket of groceries their problem rather than yours is IMMENSE.

YES. Yes exactly!!

And Co-Op is the worst offender for this. They consistently understaff their shops, or employ absolute retards who don't recognise that when there are twenty people blocking the four inch wide aisles to queue up for the one spastic on a till they should maybe quit their futile shelf stacking to help out.

I am exactly the same and have ceremoniously DUMPED a basket full of shopping at the entrance to Co-Op on SO MANY occasions now when I've been too infuriated by the queue ahead. More people need to make a stand against this sort of thing. It amazes me how well the Co-Op appear to be doing with their supermarkets at the moment. They're everywhere, and they're always being done up, extended, increasing their opening hours etc.

Their care in the community approach to recruitment is apparently providing dividends

 

[Was not Was]

YES. Yes exactly!!

And Co-Op is the worst offender for this. They consistently understaff their shops, or employ absolute retards who don't recognise that when there are twenty people blocking the four inch wide aisles to queue up for the one spastic on a till they should maybe quit their futile shelf stacking to help out.

I am exactly the same and have ceremoniously DUMPED a basket full of shopping at the entrance to Co-Op on SO MANY occasions now when I've been too infuriated by the queue ahead. More people need to make a stand against this sort of thing. It amazes me how well the Co-Op appear to be doing with their supermarkets at the moment. They're everywhere, and they're always being done up, extended, increasing their opening hours etc.

Their care in the community approach to recruitment is apparently providing dividends

You could always, I dunno, talk to other people in the queue or listen to your ipod or something. As my Bristolian fried ironically remarks when they see a speeding car, "oh look, they must be a heart surgeon on a way to a life-saving operation"

 

[Colossal Squid]

You could always, I dunno, talk to other people in the queue or listen to your ipod or something. As my Bristolian fried ironically remarks when they see a speeding car, "oh look, they must be a heart surgeon on a way to a life-saving operation"

That's not the point. I CAN entertain myself if needed, I just don't WANT to in situations like this. As I mentioned previously, I'd rather spend the time looking elsewhere

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

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 !

You could turn this thread on its head and ask: 'Falmer season tickets - why could it NOT have been done online?'

 

[Easy 10]

Moving away from Co-op, here's how it COULD work

Maybe 20 or 30 national ticketing outlets spread throughout the UK in the major towns / cities.

The people at the desk purchase them online for you. You get a printed receipt, the tickets are then posted to you at a later date with your name/address printed on them, to cut down on touting.

They are sold over a series of days for certain events. So for example, 4th June they are selling tickets for:

Olympic Stadium morning of 10th July, which has mens discus (decathlon), 4 x 400m, javelin etc etc
Olympic Stadium afternoon of 10th July, which has womans long jump (decathlon), mens pole vault etc etc
Archery 2nd round at Lords
Boxing 2nd round Wembley Arena

Then on 7th June they are selling:

Olympic Stadium morning of 11th July for......blah blah
Olympic Stadium afternoon of 11th July for...blah blah
Cycling
Rowing

Carry on like that. Nobody can buy more than 6 tickets to any one event, and as they're not selling ALL the events on any single day at the ticketing outlets, it gives everyone more of a chance of getting along to something they want to see.

Of course, the day of the 100m sales is The Big One. You'll just have to be prepared to be at your outlet damned early, and perhaps they limit those sales to just 4 or 5 major ticketing outlets, so people would have to be prepared to travel. No excuses though - you're that desperate to go, you'll do it. And if you get those tickets, you'll DESERVE them.

 

[Easy 10]

You could turn this thread on its head and ask: 'Falmer season tickets - why could it NOT have been done online?'

Meh.
I think the club were very fair with how they did it. No complaints from me, guv.

 

[bhaexpress]

Doing it online is by far and above the cheapest and most reliable method. No queueing, payments done electronically and I bet it reduces touting as well.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Meh.
I think the club were very fair with how they did it. No complaints from me, guv.

Same, really. But I'd have chosen more or less the exact same seat from an online seating plan, and spared meself the somewhat ineffectual hard sell for the Private Seat Licence (which was probably the main point of the exercise).

 

[Was not Was]

Moving away from Co-op, here's how it COULD work

Maybe 20 or 30 national ticketing outlets spread throughout the UK in the major towns / cities.

The people at the desk purchase them online for you. You get a printed receipt, the tickets are then posted to you at a later date with your name/address printed on them, to cut down on touting.

They are sold over a series of days for certain events. So for example, 4th June they are selling tickets for:

Olympic Stadium morning of 10th July, which has mens discus (decathlon), 4 x 400m, javelin etc etc
Olympic Stadium afternoon of 10th July, which has womans long jump (decathlon), mens pole vault etc etc
Archery 2nd round at Lords
Boxing 2nd round Wembley Arena

Then on 7th June they are selling:

Olympic Stadium morning of 11th July for......blah blah
Olympic Stadium afternoon of 11th July for...blah blah
Cycling
Rowing

Carry on like that. Nobody can buy more than 6 tickets to any one event, and as they're not selling ALL the events on any single day at the ticketing outlets, it gives everyone more of a chance of getting along to something they want to see.

Of course, the day of the 100m sales is The Big One. You'll just have to be prepared to be at your outlet damned early, and perhaps they limit those sales to just 4 or 5 major ticketing outlets, so people would have to be prepared to travel. No excuses though - you're that desperate to go, you'll do it. And if you get those tickets, you'll DESERVE them.

This is so clearly the BEST way to sell tickets that it's CRYSTAL CLEAR that all ticket sales to date should be voided, and the process should start again using the Easy 10 method.

 

[Gritt23]

Moving away from Co-op, here's how it COULD work

Maybe 20 or 30 national ticketing outlets spread throughout the UK in the major towns / cities.

The people at the desk purchase them online for you. You get a printed receipt, the tickets are then posted to you at a later date with your name/address printed on them, to cut down on touting.

They are sold over a series of days for certain events. So for example, 4th June they are selling tickets for:

Olympic Stadium morning of 10th July, which has mens discus (decathlon), 4 x 400m, javelin etc etc
Olympic Stadium afternoon of 10th July, which has womans long jump (decathlon), mens pole vault etc etc
Archery 2nd round at Lords
Boxing 2nd round Wembley Arena

Then on 7th June they are selling:

Olympic Stadium morning of 11th July for......blah blah
Olympic Stadium afternoon of 11th July for...blah blah
Cycling
Rowing

Carry on like that. Nobody can buy more than 6 tickets to any one event, and as they're not selling ALL the events on any single day at the ticketing outlets, it gives everyone more of a chance of getting along to something they want to see.

Of course, the day of the 100m sales is The Big One. You'll just have to be prepared to be at your outlet damned early, and perhaps they limit those sales to just 4 or 5 major ticketing outlets, so people would have to be prepared to travel. No excuses though - you're that desperate to go, you'll do it. And if you get those tickets, you'll DESERVE them.

So, the chances are if you want to go to two different events you have to queue up TWICE. Naah, I've missed out on tickets, but they did it the right way.

Even your Old Skool plan would have the person in teh ticket office booking them for you on the internet. So why not do it yourself in teh comfort of your own home?

 

[drew]

That's not the point. I CAN entertain myself if needed, I just don't WANT to in situations like this. As I mentioned previously, I'd rather spend the time looking elsewhere

Entertaining yourself whilst in a supermarket queue is really not something that should be encouraged!!!!

As for the OP, get a life. Are you trying to tell me that before the interweb arrived, rich people joined the queue like everyone else!!!!

 

[Easy 10]

So, the chances are if you want to go to two different events you have to queue up TWICE. Naah, I've missed out on tickets, but they did it the right way.

Even your Old Skool plan would have the person in teh ticket office booking them for you on the internet. So why not do it yourself in teh comfort of your own home?

You have the "real world" ticket offices to weed out the millions of "meh" applications, thats the whole point.

Make it a bit more of an EFFORT for people to get the tickets, and you'll get the folk who really, really WANT to go. Instead of millions of people who are sat bored at work, are not overly bovvered but think "oh well, might as well see if I can get some of those Olympic tickets"...click click click

The Olympic ticketing was totally oversubscribed because its too chuffing easy to apply, and everyone is lazy. I'm not saying my idea is perfect from the off, the method could do with refining perhaps. But the principal behind it is, I think, sound.

And Drew, rich people always find some way of turning up at these big events, thats always going to be the case, always has been. But I stand by my proposal that for once the internet should have been binned for this event, it would have been better and fairer to have gone back to ticket offices for this.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Would you need planning permission for these new ticket offices?

 

[Simster]

Couple of things Easy:
1) I suspect it was cheaper to do it all on-line.
2) I don't think you can fully discriminate between the enthusuiast and the "meh" applicant. After all, we all PAID for the damn thing.

If we're going to complain about the way it was organised, I'd have preferred a restriction had been placed on the number of tickets ordered per household, and they should have announced they were holding back some tickets for pay on the gate. Provisions could have then been made for camping outside like people do for Wimbledon - at least you get enthusiasts in the door that way.

 

[Easy 10]

Couple of things Easy:
1) I suspect it was cheaper to do it all on-line.
2) I don't think you can fully discriminate between the enthusuiast and the "meh" applicant. After all, we all PAID for the damn thing.

If we're going to complain about the way it was organised, I'd have preferred a restriction had been placed on the number of tickets ordered per household, and they should have announced they were holding back some tickets for pay on the gate. Provisions could have then been made for camping outside like people do for Wimbledon - at least you get enthusiasts in the door that way.

Fair points. But -

1) Cheaper to do it online ? Certainly. Although by making the ticketing venues fan-friendly with food, drink, refreshments, Olympic tat/souveniers available etc, with a bit of imagination it could actually have been turned into a profitable event in itself.

2) True, but the "meh" applicant would still have the same opportunity to buy tickets as the enthusiast, thats not been taken away. The "meh's" would probably be further back in the queues for sure, but then thats their choice isn't it.

I like your pay-on-the-gate idea. Perhaps some of the cheaper tickets could have been held back for this, then its first come first serve. But I guess the IOC just don't want vast queues outside the venues on the day of the event.

 

[Tooting Gull]

To be fair, Stratford isn't Southfields, camping on the streets would be a mugger's charter.

 

[KJP]

It didnt have to be done online, You could do it by post