Olympic Hurdle

Have Olympic ticket sales always been such a hotbed of discontent or is Britain entering new territory? Quick Google searches don’t turn up much evidence of prior grumbling, neither among spectators nor Olympiads, which begs the question of whether Britain’s convoluted plan for ticket allocation parity – all those staggered lotteries and release dates, has, like orderly queueing, been a peculiarly British experience. Was Sydney 2000 swamped with a sea of angry Aussies frustrated by their poor odds at securing seats? Was Athens 2004 lambasted for giving away too many corporate tickets? And what about Beijing 2008? How did China handle things? Actually I was going to make a joke, but as it turns out Beijing really did come up with a one ticket per person rule for the opening and closing ceremonies and two per person for sporting events, strictly ruling out any block or group bookings. The Secretary General of the Beijing Organizing Committee acknowledged it was probably not a popular decision, but pointed out, “There are just too many of us Chinese. We’ve taken this policy to ensure many more people can watch the games.” I’m guessing for the mob of disillusioned and ticketless Brits, it sounds like a mighty fair game plan.

After the agonizing wait for official notification, I was one of the lucky ones. At least so my congratulatory email told me. I opened the email with trepidation, feeling every inch like Charlie when he saw the gold edge of his winning ticket to the Chocolate Factory. But my excitement cooled when I read I’d only been awarded tickets to a single event. Even with all the buzz words and exclamation points welcoming me to The Greatest Show on Earth! – something I think Cirque du Soleil also likes to claim - I discovered I had 4 tickets for the Olympic rowing in Eton-Dorney, near Windsor. This is in my parents’ neck of the woods, and growing up in the Bucks/Berks area means I spent most teenage summers in Laura Ashley dresses admiring the bracing rowers at the Henley Royal Regatta and my late teens trying to get into some of Windsor’s more lax watering holes. Don’t get me wrong, Olympic tickets are Olympic tickets, but let’s just say I was at least hoping to see inside the London venues with tickets to the gymnastics, diving, or mens’ 100 metre finals.

Not to worry, with the lotteries over, the remaining tickets are still to be released for general sale. Except this week the Olympic Committee decided they will not be released in early December 2011 as promised, a deadline I’ve been waiting for like a pawing bull facing a Matador’s cape. Instead, they will be released in April 2012. A mere three months before the start of the Olympics in July. I don’t know how they expect people to feel good about this. It pokes giant holes in my own plans to center a family vacation around the Olympics and a milestone birthday. As it stands, the Olympic weeks have already jacked up prices of UK accommodations, and I have zero faith that the money-grubbing airlines won’t do the same.

Travel to the UK is notoriously expensive in the summertime. Go in February or November and you’ll get a bargain. Fly in peak season and you’ll pay twice or thrice for the privilege. High season accommodations hinge on the double whammy of pre-set school holidays and good weather odds and trump all other rates of the calendar year. So by the end of 2010 I had already made provisional enquiries to several property owners. Each replied that they had not yet decided their Olympic weekly rates and to follow up sometime in 2011. This summer I decided to do a little research to find out how property owners were being advised to price their moneymakers. As it turned out, the vacation home rental sites (vrbo.com, holidayletting.co.uk, homeaway.com) were unanimous in their advice: Depending on your location and its proximity to the Olympic events, you could feel good about increasing your weekly peak rate by 50%-200%. The mind boggles.

At this point, Olympic Committee Chair, Sebastian Coe, has managed to accomplish something extraordinary. By exerting pressure on supply and demand, people are willing to buy whatever tickets they can get their hands on. And in this way, less popular events are selling out just as swiftly as the predictable crowd draws. The big winner here is that the London Olympics 2012 is almost guaranteed to pay for itself, perhaps the biggest fear among organizers and stadium builders in any nation. And after the brouhaha over London’s costly Millenium Dome, it’s pretty clear no-one wanted to be left with the bill for an expensive white elephant.

As for me, I’m still scouring the internet for every helpful tidbit on securing Olympic tickets. I have my American husband signed up on US sites, and I’m signed in for UK updates. We’ve changed our game plan a little and may stay far from the madding London crowds closer to the coast before heading to the grandparents once the games start. Either way, we still won’t know our ticket fate until after April. Nothing like leaving things to chance. Just another Olympic hurdle in our way.