The Great Olympic Ticket Fiasco

Personally, I always thought that Seb Coe - sorry, Lord Coe - was a not very bright bloke who landed a peerage and a plumb job by brown nosing to Tony Blair. Apparently, he is now proving it!

The sale of 2010 Olympic tickets has got to be the worst thought out piece of organisation that we have seen for many a year. And that's saying something. I'll explain why -

Let's assume that you actually want to attend the crock of shite known as the 2012 Olympics. Let's further assume that you want to go three times to a selection of 'sessions' (you don't get a day ticket).

So you go to the web site and buy three lots of tickets? Er, no. Too simple. You say which tickets you want and give them your plastic details, and they then decide in a month or so which tickets you will actually be allocated and then take the money

So, you've decided when and where you want to go and you've organised the tickets? Er, no. You might not get the tickets you want. In fact, you might not get allocated any at all.

So in order to have a good chance of going three times, you pick a whole selection of dates and times and you apply for your maximum allocation of 20 in the hope you will get 3 you actually like. And this is where the stupidity comes in...

Let's assume that your hunt for 3 lots of tickets has resulted in you getting 10, so now you have 7 you don't want. Too bad because they charged you for them and have your money.

The plan is that you now can sell these tickets back to the organisers at face value and they will then sell thenm them on to someone else. But not until next year sometime. So, you have just loaned the government your hard earned cash for a year at no interest.

Of course, if the Olympic sellers had just let you book on line on a first come first served basis, you would know exactly where you were, have the tickets you wanted on the day you wanted them, and they would still have sold all the tickets - and saved a shed load of admin costs on taking them back and reselling them.

And why have they decided to do it this way? Well, Lord Coe says it's fairer and ensures that people have a better chance of getting tickets. Of course, he's very concerned at the hits on the website and is impressed with the speed the tickets are being snapped up.

Like I said - not very bright!