Olympics ticket payments postponed
An aerial view of the Olympic Stadium. Photo:ODA
This article titled “Olympics ticket payments postponed” was written by Owen Gibson, for The Guardian on Monday 9th May 2011 18.03 UTC
London Olympic organisers have confirmed that it will be next week before money for 2012 tickets starts being deducted from the accounts of successful applicants.
The organising committee originally said money would start being taken from Tuesday. But ballots to determine who will get the tickets to oversubscribed events will now continue for the rest of the week, pushing the notification date back to 16 May at the earliest.
The ticket sales process has come under fire from some consumer groups because money will be deducted before buyers are told exactly which tickets they have been successful in acquiring.
Locog has said it will endeavour to inform buyers which tickets they have got as close as possible to the date on which they are charged for them. But they will only commit publicly to deducting the money by 10 June and informing successful applicants by 24 June.
A total of more 20m applications for the 6.6m tickets were made by 1.8 million applicants before the 26 June deadline, with more than half of the 650 sessions oversubscribed.
Among the sports that have already sold out in the first ticketing phase are equestrian cross country, track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics and triathlon.
Martyn Saville, principal researcher at consumer magazine Which?, said the system encouraged people to apply for more tickets and criticised the sale process.
“It just feels like the selling of a pig in a poke. Firstly, you do not know if you are getting the pig or when or how you might be able to sell it,” he said. “It is a bizarre system when they take the money before you know if you have won or how you can resell.”
The Locog chief executive Paul Deighton has expressed confidence that very few people will have applied for more tickets than they can afford and emphasised that a resale mechanism will be put in place early next year.
If applicants do not immediately have enough money in their accounts, or have breached their credit limit, they will be offered the opportunity to rectify the situation before losing their tickets.
Those who have not received all the tickets they requested will be given another chance to submit applications for those that are left in July, before the remainder go back on sale on the open market towards the end of the year.
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