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Ten pound poms to charge Olympic fans to breathe

Anthony Sharwood

by Anthony Sharwood

09 May 11:35am

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Filed under: 2012, England, London Olympics, Olympics

26 comments

London Olympic organisers LOCOG are officially loco. They are not, however, low cost.

Asking people to pay to stand here is Surrey shrubbery robbery

In an unprecedented step, LOCOG will charge people ten pounds to enter the main Olympic stadium precinct and watch events on the big screen. Up to 70,000 such tickets are for sale.

They will also charge people to watch the road cycling in the Surrey countryside, as well as charging ten pounds to watch Olympic tennis on the big screen on the famous “Henman Hill” at Wimbledon – the small patch of grass named after the mostly unthreatening Pom who lost four Wimbledon semi finals.

None of this has happened before at an Olympics, and it runs strongly against the vibe of wildly successful Olympics like Sydney, where even those without tickets felt like they were part of the huge, city-wide party.

Ticket sales have generally been going well in London. Twenty two million people applied for the first batch of six million tickets, and around 9 million tickets will likely be sold overall, so it’s hard to understand LOCOG’s pettiness.

They have, however, made trips to Beijing to see how the Chinese did it, so perhaps they lost a little of the party mood on those trips.

In all seriousness, this is a heck of a way to raise a million quid in ticket revenue and and blow several million more in public relations goodwill.

In other British sports news overnight, former England cricketer Adam Holioake has drawn his first cage fight, in his new career as a practitioner of mixed martial arts. “I would love to do it again, but my wife was not a big fan,” he told BBC Sport.

“She is a beautiful person and she wants me to follow my dreams. But I just think at the moment she wishes my dreams were something else.”

Great quote, that. Someone should tell London Olympic organisers they’re dreamin’ too.

Most commented

26 comments

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    • Gymmer says:

      12:36pm | 09/05/12

      Unbelievable. We’ll be over there (by coincidence) when the Olympics are on and so tried our hand at tickets when the Australian allotment was released. Nearly $300 to watch table tennis? $900 for decent seats at the athletics. I don’t think so…we quickly decided that we’d rather just soak up the atmosphere and watch the road cycling/triathlons for free, and now this! It’s not that we can’t afford 10 pounds each to go into the precinct but it doesn’t really seem in the spirit of it all. I wish we could have travelled at a different time when London wasn’t going to be so packed and accommodation costs through the roof.

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      01:06pm | 09/05/12

      When you sit down and look at it the Olympics is just a big school sports carnival full of actvities we don’t give a stuff about inbetween 2 weeks every 4 years.

      Reply

    • persson says:

      01:37pm | 09/05/12

      *sigh* I hate the Olympics.

    • Seb's 800 says:

      01:08pm | 09/05/12

      It cost a tenner in congestion charge to drive into Central London anyway.

      A tenner is nothing.

      Don’t worry Ant, as a place to party London is on a completely different planet to Sydney. You know this.

      Major global metropolis Olympics don’t come around very often. A London or New York (A dream) Olympics is whole different ball game to anything else.

      My tickets are f**king booked.

      There’s something excellent about being able to stand outside a pub on the street with a beer in your hand without being told to move inside by some idiot, roided-up bouncer as is the official Australian rule of law.

      Something to a with the freedom to drink a wine in a park without being arrested as per the Sydney “Festival”

      The program of events for the London Olympics (without even including the sport) is bloody incredible - http://festival.london2012.com/index.php

      You’re sounding like a whinger Ant, relax.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      01:16pm | 09/05/12

      Seb’s, try drinking a beer inside a sports stadium whilst watching the Olympics and see how far you get.

    • maybe says:

      01:42pm | 09/05/12

      “Major global metropolis Olympics”? You don’t consider Sydney a ‘major global metropolis…let alone Beijing, Barcelona, Athens, etc etc etc…

      I really must just be a simple country kid.

    • Seb's 800 says:

      01:45pm | 09/05/12

      @Richard Very true but at least you can slip off to the bar area and buy a real beer as opposed to the corporate mid-strengh urine served at sporting events here.

    • Bill says:

      02:21pm | 09/05/12

      Sydney is far from being a ‘major global metropolis’, despite what its small population wishes to believe. It is an insignificant backwater compared to most European and North American cities.

      Just watch the London Olympics and you will see how a true international city puts on a great show. Unlike the cringeworthy Sydney games (remember the inflatable kangaroos on bicycles? I nearly died of embarrassment).

    • seb's 800 says:

      02:28pm | 09/05/12

      @maybe What I meant so say was…there’s only 2 alpha++ cities on the planet.

      London & New York.

      Sydney is Alpha+
      Beijing is Alpha
      Barcelona is Alpha-
      Athens is Beta+

      Olympics at Alpha++ cities is rare. Last one was London 1948. New York has never hosted one.

    • bella starkey says:

      02:51pm | 09/05/12

      There isn’t exactly a huge amount of space in New York to host an Olympics. Everything would have to be held way out of the city so it might as well be in New Jersey.

    • Richard says:

      03:03pm | 09/05/12

      True, but then when you leave the stadium you’ll still be in England wink

    • Dan says:

      03:07pm | 09/05/12

      Bill. Rhymes with dill.

    • d says:

      03:55pm | 09/05/12

      Seb’s 800 has an Olympic city rating system…

    • marley says:

      07:17pm | 09/05/12

      The proof, as the Brits are wont to say, will be in the pudding. I personally expect that this will be yet another commercialised, soulless Olympic Games whose only purpose is to sell hi-tech shoes, bikes and swimsuits.

      Whether the Games are held in London or Lower Slobovia isn’t going to change the fact that, these days, they’re all about marketing.  The Olympics have become the shopping mall of sports - glitzy, expensive, but same, same, same.  You could be anywhere.

    • Chonko says:

      02:18pm | 09/05/12

      LOCOG have overspent so wildly,  we must forgive them for trying to pick a pocket or two.  The UK economy is severely stuffed, but in such a class based society, charging for these usually free events, will be to keep the riff raff and oiks to a minimum rather than a cash grab.  Cycling being the new golf and Surrey rather affluent beer sodden chavs and dirty flirty shorty skirty chavettes would not be welcome.  I’ll acknowledge @Seb’s 800 preference for a real pub over our miserable and soulless pokie barns, and that London is a far livelier place than Sydney for the under thirties, but for everyday living in between Olympics, Sydney wins hands down over a grim workaday, tube riding London, unless you have the cash reserves of a Russian oligarch and they flock to live in London.

      Reply

    • L. says:

      03:08pm | 09/05/12

      Chonko ,

      I think you have pretty much nailed it with your post.

    • Justin of Earlwood says:

      03:04pm | 09/05/12

      Didn’t you need a ticket to an event in the precinct to enter the precinct in Sydney? I can’t remember if they were actually checking tickets or not on the special event buses that took you right in.

      The street events (marathons, walks, road cycling, etc.) have always been the way to involve people who didn’t want to buy a ticket or couldn’t afford to go an event, so that’s a sad change (unless it’s for some organised seating?). Mind you, they pretty much banned spectators for the cycling road races in Beijing, so being able to actually attend is a plus…

      If you listen to British radio, the build up is very much like it was here. Everyone is whinging about how bad everything will be & are saying they’ll rent their houses out & head OS. They’ll all stay & have a great time.

      Reply

    • HappyG says:

      03:23pm | 09/05/12

      Yep they’ll stay and have a great time and then have to pay off the debt for the next 20 years. But there will be great memories and heaps of under utilised stadiums as a legacy. Personally I like the idea of the original Olympics where the competitors all performed in the nude. I’ll bet tickets to the Gymnastics under those circumstances would be way more than 900 quid…..........just saying.

    • Justin of Earlwood says:

      03:43pm | 09/05/12

      Sydney wasn’t really left with any white elephants. That’s not to say they got everything right.

      The layout of the stadium at Homebush is poor - the bowl area is too flat, the upper levels are too far back & the silly “everyone can sit on the half-way line” design of the top level is just stupid. Look at new Wembley or Cowboys Stadium for great design & atmosphere.

      The rail link to Homebush Bay is stupid. It needed to be a through line, not a pure destination, so it rules out swinging by the area leaving it dead when specific events aren’t on. To get there from anywhere that isn’t on the main West line is 3 trains at least. Having said that, it’s just a continuation of the poor layout of the Cityrail network.

      The Airport rail line isn’t quite right. It should have looped via UNSW, Randwick racecourse & the Moore Park precinct.

      Despite that, they’re all heavily used & qualify as successful (even if it took time). You can argue the money would have been better spent elsewhere, but it wasn’t dead money.

    • stephen says:

      03:48pm | 09/05/12

      Yeah well I saw Mr. Holioake on tele and as a big lot of blubber he could have done better if he’d just sat on his opponent.

      ‘Let me up, let me up, I can’t stand it any more’ !

      ps   some dreams are just not worth re-telling.

      Reply

    • Ginger Mick says:

      04:22pm | 09/05/12

      I like the sound of ‘diry flirty shorty skirty chavettes’!

      Reply

    • BenJay says:

      04:59pm | 09/05/12

      Agreed Ginger, any one know which events they will be attending?

    • Utopia Boy says:

      08:45pm | 09/05/12

      Wouldn’t be caught dead within cooeee of an Olympic event.

      The entire organisation is corrupted.

      Reply

    • Kips says:

      07:47am | 10/05/12

      Ten pound poms??  That makes no sense as the ten pound poms sailed to Australia to live…

      Reply

    • Dibatag says:

      09:08am | 10/05/12

      Quite right Kips I think this guy is just letting his anti English feelings show or maybe he knows no better The games are a bloody great waste of time and money and the Olympic body corrupt beyond belief , the thing should scrapped.

      Reply
 
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