POSTED: May 23rd 2011
NewsUpdate
London 2012 tickets storm blows up over claims of 'open' sales abroad
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON, May 23: Concern has been raised that foreign Olympics fans have been able to buy tickets at face value on the open market while British would-be spectators had to enter a ballot for the host's own 6/6m tickets.
One German website, endorsed by the International Olympic Committee, has been selling tickets to Europeans on its website since March. Tickets for the men’s 200m final, in which Usain Bolt is expected to star and the men’s 1500m final have gone for as little as £132 with attendance for the men's modern pentathlon priced at £28.
These tickets are legitimate, having been passed to authorised resellers by more than 200 worldwide Olympic committees. Many authorised resellers in Europe are, or will be, offering their tickets as part of a holiday package. Thomas Cook is selling 100m packages at a variety of prices up to £3,500.
A German travel company, Dertour, and a British firm, Sportsworld, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, have been reporting as holding the widest online selection of tickets available. Dertour said it sold over half of its allocation of around 50,000. Britons have to wait until June 24 to find out what tickets they may have secured, or more likely not secured.
LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, has refuted criticism over its domestic lottery system, saying: “We didn’t make it first come, first served because we didn’t think that would be fair.”
A spokesman added that tickets for specific events were being offered on official websites outside Britain, but said this was no different to the way Team GB fans would have bought tickets for previous Games.
British 'lucky buyers' will not be able to resell tickets (at face value on the official 2012 site) until next year.
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