ATLB

I applied for my Olympic tickets near the start of the allotted time window hoping to get some to see minor events but I also applied for the 100m final. I knew that it would be oversubscribed but I thought there’s no harm in applying for some of the cheaper tickets. I’ve just heard that there are 40k seats available and over a million people applied!

I don’t mind that fact that I’ve got low odds because a lot of other people applied – that’s just something you need to accept with this sort of system. What annoys me is that the stadium is capable of holding over 80,000 people, yet half the tickets are going to corporate sponsors rather than fans.

I understand that some need to go to the sponsors – someone has to top up the budget – but didn’t tax payers pay for the vast majority of the games? It seems crazy that such a large proportion of tickets is taken up by people who probably aren’t that interested in being there.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised though. Exactly the same thing has happened at the Champions League final at Wembley in a week or so – it seems to be the accepted way of selling tickets for major events these days.

It’s difficult to say whether it will detract from the atmosphere, but it’s a shame that so many people are going to miss out.