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| London 2012 Tickets: demand will far outstrip supply. |
Taking advantage of overwhelming demand for London 2012 tickets, illegal websites purporting to be "licensed ticket re-sellers" are cropping up on the internet. A battle is brewing in cyberspace. During my recent swing through London a few weeks ago, London 2012 organisers seemed to be in "what the f*ck are we doing mode" as the drop dead March 15 ticket sale date looms large on the calendar. In several meetings, I heard that tour operators like us could purchase tickets, then we couldn't, then we had to provide individual client's names, then we didn't, then we had to register for the ballot, then we didn't.
A few things are certain:
- Millions of tickets will go on sale in the spring
- The ticketing system is clearly a work in progress
- Like every previous Olympic Games, tickets will be bought and sold
- 50% of the tickets will go to Olympic insiders or VIPs (20% will surely be fartcatchers for IOC president Jacques Rogge)
- Like every previous Olympic Games, organisers will pretend that there won't be a black market
- Scalpers will eventually acquire and re-sell tickets
He said: "Someone may travel from a distant part of the UK, coming to London thinking that they have tickets for the 100m final for which they have paid thousands of pounds, only to find they have no accommodation, no ticket and no experience of a lifetime. "I don't want London to be associated with that."
Police will be on the lookout for fraudulent and touting websites when the 6.6 million tickets available to the public for the Olympic and Paralympic Games go on sale on 15 March this year. Mr Downing said officers had learned lessons by monitoring the chaos around the release of Take That tickets last October. Prior to the band's tickets going on sale, five or six unlicensed websites were operating, he said, but this jumped to "hundreds" the day the tickets were released. The situation was exacerbated by authorised sellers' sites crashing, leaving desperate fans more vulnerable to handing over their card details to touts and fraudsters.
London 2012 organisers hope to avoid a similar buying frenzy by making the application process open for six weeks, after which the tickets will be allocated by ballot. Police are working with the organising committee to develop a legitimate way for people to resell and swap tickets without resorting to touts. Unlike other sporting events and concerts, unlicensed reselling of Olympic tickets is illegal under Section 31 of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, meaning officers can arrest touts. However, Mr Downing said the 36-strong Operation Podium team was already compiling a list of known ticket touts across the UK and would use a range of legal tools including ASBOs and seizing assets to "create a hostile environment" in which they would not wish to operate.
Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the National Olympic Security Co-ordinator, said there were no guarantees that London 2012 would be a tout-free zone but "we will put the fear on them using every possible legislation that we can". This reminds me of comedian Robin Williams take on the London Police who at the time didn't carry sidearms. "Stop!" said Williams imitating a police constable, "Or I'll say 'Stop' again!"
Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.
