The Ticket Request Phase Period is from today through April 22. At that point, it is determined if requests for tickets to a particular event outnumber available seats. If so, a lottery is held. Order/time/date of request isn’t considered at all.
If your requests are honored, you will be notified and your credit card charged at that point (June, 2011). You are required to pay for any requested tickets received.
I’m wondering if it’s worth taking the chance to request only tickets to medal ceremonies, or if that means risking getting nothing at all. If I do find that I get none of my requested tickets, will there be a second chance to request tickets to some less popular events?
The website for the only U.S. authorized Olympic ticket seller is offline today, I imagine because of heavy demand. I did look for information yesterday, and didn’t find an answer to this particular question.
Dopers who’ve attended the Olympics in the past - is this how it was done? Did you succeed in getting tickets to the events you wanted? Are there any secrets I should know about?
I’m at the same stage as you, trying to decide on tactics.
Unless they entirely sell out in the next six weeks – and I can’t imagine that they will do as there’s 8.8 million tickets up for grabs – then I imagine we will all get another bite at the cherry after the premium tickets have been sold.
I lived in Montreal in 1976, and in Los Angeles in 1984. I attended events at the Olympics both times.
It was far easier to get tickets to the Montreal games, simply because the local population was smaller. Even so, the real marquee events were still tough tickets.
For L.A. they set up a lottery system similar to the one you describe for 2012. It worked pretty well except that the demand was so high that we got almost nothing of what we asked for. We ended up with tickets for a prelim football match and some track cycling. (The cycling was pretty good, actually.)
I expect demand in London to similarly be high. So don’t expect to get any big events.
ETA: On the other hand, I know people who simply waited until the days of the events themselves and bought tickets off people standing outside the arenas who wanted to sell. They got to see pretty much whatever they wanted.
I’m less concerned with getting tickets to “big” events than I am about ending up with tickets to no events at all. On the other hand, I’ve watched the Olympics on TV my whole life, and there are plenty of events with lots of empty seats in the background.
In theory, I think the lottery system is a good idea. I’ve spent enough time in my day waiting in line, literally and virtually, for concert tickets. I imagine this system does something to prove that the purchaser is a real person, and not a computer or ticket broker system, too.
Actually, that’s a good point. London is so easily accessible from continental europe – eg a Parisian could jump on the eurostar and be at the Olympic Park in just over two hours – that demand is going to be very high.
As an aside, the track cycling in 2012 will be almost as popular as the big ticket athletics track events in the main stadium because the British track cycling team is the most successful in the world at the moment, and the big banker for British medals at 2012.
It wouldn’t surprise me if touts get a very hard time of it at this games. The organisers seem to be being very hot on online touts at the moment, and if they follow the system of the 02 Arena (huge concert venue which has got rid of touts altogether, and which is one of the Olympic venues) then I wouldn’t rely on many touts being around. They might be, but just don’t bank on it.
I’m still considering running away during the Olympics and renting my flat out, but f I stay it’ll be so much easier to handle the traffic and delays and sundry inconveniences if I at lest get to go to one event.
Yep, Diamond Geezer says exactly what I was trying to say.
I guess my only remaining question is … what do they do with tickets to events that did not have as many requests as seats in the original request period? I’m imagining, and I don’t think this is unrealistic, that I’ll bid for the best, and possibly lose. At that point, I’ll have an opportunity to bid for *other *than best. Like I said, there are lots of qualifying rounds with lots of empty seats (in past years’ Olympic Games).
I doubt there will be many such events. Those empty seats were most likely bought by corporations who then either didn’t send anybody, or did send someone who promptly went to the bar rather than the seat, or they were bought by someone (individual or corporation) who was wealthy enough to buy tickets to synchronous events then just not bother going to the less interesting ones.
If you’ve ever watched a football match on TV for a big team like Man U or Arsenal, you’ll notice empty seats for the same reason.
SciFiSam - Good point. I’m beginning to see that I’m hopelessly naive about this, and I’m really glad I asked about it so early on. I have some time to think of my strategy.
I’ll read the rest of Diamond Geezer’s blog, put in my bids, cross my fingers, and hope for the best!
After this thread and other research, we decided not to even try for tickets. And according to articles I’ve read recently, that was a good call: 55% of applicants completely denied! Man, that’s a lot of stress, to end up with nothing.
Worth noting that the tickets for the undersubscribed sessions (various heats and less popular sports) will be offered first to those that were unsuccessful in the first round.
I didn’t get any. I live in an ‘Olympic borough’ and didn’t get any. I think I will rent the flat out or do a flatswap; there’s going to be loads of disruption for the Games, and I know I’ll be seething every day as I struggle through it knowing that I can’t even take part.
Will they? All I’ve seen is that you can reapply from tomorrow at am, though someone on the news earlier said Friday at 6am instead, which is confusing.
A lot of the available tickets are for sports not in London.
For some reason my account didn’t have the link to apply for tickets. I could see any that were in the Olympic park at all anyway. Now I’m registered at a holiday-homeswap, so it works out OK anyway.
I’m in Atlanta and applied for lots of tickets for t.6eeh 1996 games. I got some decent ones, but didn’t get any for the opening or closing ceremonies – very hot tickets, of course.
About two weeks before the games, I was notified that they had a few left over for the opening ceremonies and because I was among the first to miss out during the initial lottery, I could have a pair.
Not having any girlfriend I wanted to drop $600 on by taking her to ceremony, I ended up swapping one of mine with a guy who had two closing ceremony tickets (he paid me a couple hundred bucks also, to cover the price difference). We both got to see the opening and closing ceremonies from great seats.
I live in an ‘Olympic borough’ and didn’t get any. I think I will rent the flat out or do a flatswap; there’s going to be loads of disruption for the Games, and I know I’ll be seething every day as I struggle through it knowing that I can’t even take part.