Empty seats!

The water issue was bad wasn't it. They made it sound like water would be readily available for free but it wasn't. We ended up just buying bottles after queuing for yonks and missed the first 3 tests because of it
 
ihatework said:
The water issue was bad wasn't it. They made it sound like water would be readily available for free but it wasn't. We ended up just buying bottles after queuing for yonks and missed the first 3 tests because of it
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according to the army guys the water in the toilets is drinking water so we just filled up there without queuing :)

There were lots of empty seats all day long - some areas didn't seem to have been sold. Interestingly a whole load went up for sale late last night and early this morning for today, so I wouldn't be surprised if the same didn't happen again for other events.
 
we decided the empty seats were for press at the top (all that plastic) and hepers and officials at the bottom. We thought it might all fill up tomorrow when Zara goes. I hope she does well. I think she has more pressure than most riders with all the press attention
 
From what I understand they only gave two tickets to each athlete. I know the American team was begging for access to extra tickets for family and sponsors yesterday.
 
I'm a snowboard athlete and my governing body sent out an email on Thursday offering tickets stating: "As a member of the “Olympic Family” BSS has been fortunate enough to be offered a variety of tickets that sponsors and other major supporters of sport have not thus far taken up – these have not been part of the public ballot but are tickets that were set aside by LOCOG for supporters of the Olympic family". There were tickets included for the dressage today although we did have to buy them for their original cost price. I think most of the empty seats have been for sponsors and potential future olympic athletes (because of their inspire a generation theme) which haven't been taken up.

On that note though don't think I'm defending it, I don't think its fair how its all been dealt with. I got offered a ticket for the handball semi-finals through their athlete ticket swap programme, which is a sport I know nothing about and I'm not all that interested in seeing it. I couldn't go so I returned the ticket which I hope has been offered up to the public as I'm sure there are people who wanted to see it that didn't get tickets. I don't believe its fair that people who want to see their favourite sport aren't getting the chance because sponsors and sport governing bodies got such a large amount of the tickets and then haven't used them all.
 
It is turning into a bit of an Olympyshambles, isn't it? Considering that the public, having funded the games to the tune of billions through our taxes, are far and away the biggest sponsors...

I've been quite supportive of the games, and am volunteering on the cross country tomorrow, but some of the corporatism - particularly this issue of not being able to take food into venues but having to buy on site - leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. No pun intended.
 
The company I work for (huge) is sponsoring the olympics, and has had competitions going on for months to win tickets - often with very little take up. I would imagine all the big wigs at the top got given hoards of tickets, and there are probably people sitting at home going "oh I'm not going to that, its outside and the forecast isn't good...!"
 
The ticketing issue is go to rumble on for a while isn't it.

You can take food in Kittykins and I strongly recommend that people do! We took a reasonable sized packed lunch yesterday which security saw and were totally happy with. I think them stating 'no picnic hampers' has made people think that means no food at all.
 
Kittykins said:
It is turning into a bit of an Olympyshambles, isn't it? Considering that the public, having funded the games to the tune of billions through our taxes, are far and away the biggest sponsors...

I've been quite supportive of the games, and am volunteering on the cross country tomorrow, but some of the corporatism - particularly this issue of not being able to take food into venues but having to buy on site - leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. No pun intended.
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Unfortunately, a lot of these problems are hardly particular to London. While I'm sure LOGOC should shoulder a large part of the blame, the conditions about sponsors etc are set by the IOC and non-negotiable. Every time I hear the phrase "the Olympic family" I want to scream :mad:

(From what I understand, China's solution was to simply have people on hand to fill empty seats if necessary. Harder to do here and even more so with the security demands.)

It doesn't excuse anyone, least of all LOGOC, but I do think people are getting into a real "blame GB" mindset without realising that hosting the Olympics is rife with these sorts of problems.
 
TarrSteps said:
Unfortunately, a lot of these problems are hardly particular to London. While I'm sure LOGOC should shoulder a large part of the blame, the conditions about sponsors etc are set by the IOC and non-negotiable. Every time I hear the phrase "the Olympic family" I want to scream :mad:.
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Point taken, although the ticketing process itself has hardly made friends of the general public.

On the food side, glad to hear that you can get food in. We were told "one piece of fruit and a granola bar ONLY", which seems a little hard seeing as we'll be working a whole day and they're having problems with getting our packed lunches to us due to health and safety legislation!
 
Wow! That's harsh! For myself and oh I took 2 sandwiches, 2 wraps. Crisps, pork pies, and a bag of sweets! Security saw and didn't care!
 
Most empty seats are in huge blocks, If people were just off getting food, etc, there would still be some seats occupied. What a waste, I hope they all had to pay for the seats and didnt just get given them because they were sponsors etc
 
Livid! We would love to have had tickets and would definately not run away when it rained.

As armchair critics by default..... so much 'padding' under saddles, do they not fit? Some riders looked like the Princess on the Pea.....

Toppers, is there a 'pool' as many do not look quite right? Andrew Nicholson must have swopped with the young chap from Russia or was it Belarus?

Just grouchy as could not get a ticket I guess!
 
Dovorian said:
Livid! We would love to have had tickets and would definately not run away when it rained.

As armchair critics by default..... so much 'padding' under saddles, do they not fit? Some riders looked like the Princess on the Pea.....
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I think proper equestrian folk (who IMO are the ones who deserved the tickets) wouldn't run off at the sight of rain to be honest. Eventers (and spectators) are hardly fair weather folk! The seating does look ridiculous. I doubt its just because some people are elsewhere getting food etc. as its big blocks of empty seating. What a waste! And yes, I didnt get tickets for the XC or eventing SJ like I'd wanted so am bitter, although TBH Id hate to have been in London with the pricey accomodation and bad traffic etc.

With regard to the padding under saddles, I think its just because these horses are generally sensitive / sharp types as they have to be to event. My horse (not exactly Olympic standard however!) is sensitive and is more relaxed with wool under the seat part even though his saddle fits well.
 
MagicMelon,I agree, "Proper" horsey types would not be deterred by the weather and would be prepared to sit there through whatever gets thrown at us! I think that something like the 3DE dressage phase is difficult for the general public to appreciate, it is after all 80ish sportsman doing exactly the same thing, one at a time and with no room for manouevre! You do really need to appreciate what you are seeing and I cant believe anyone not interested in the sport, or a family with young children are going to want to sit still for the best part of a day watching it! In this instance surely it would have been more prudent to sell the tickets to those who especially wanted to be there?
 
I confess I was there and we left early *blush*!!! Even my pants and bra were soaked even with waterproofs and umbrella and i am already pretty ill, I have a big meeting tomorrow morning and frankly can't risk getting seriously ill but I got a couple of hours in and the site was amazing.

my complaints:
1)we thought of going to get a warm mean (after we finished the granola bar we told we were alowed in (turns out u can actually take a picic and after all the food ran out!), HOWEVER there is no re-admission to the grounds even with a valid ticket so that wasn't possible even for 30 mins

2)they dont 'scan out' your tickets so there is no easy re-allocation system a la wimbledon style. Made it feel like such a waste as there was no way of me passing on my ticket to anyone.

despite all this what an amazing atmosphere (though guilty that its so empty now) and well done to team GB especially Tina who showed us what shes made of!!
 
Oh Maddie it was SOOOO WET wasn't it?? I didn't take any waterproofs or an umbrella - I took suncream!!!! In the 5 minutes it took Tina to do her test I was soaked to the bone. We retreated and just stood on the stairs until the rain lightened up, considered leaving but started to dry off and the (very helpful) volunteers were handing out bin bags to make rain macs out of. Not very green I know, but it was that or go home!

There was a MASSIVE chunk of empty seating, presumably reserved, and even discounting that and considering anyone out on the xc or getting food, the arena (minus the empty block) was never full to capacity, but was pretty much full.

Incredibly frustrating. As was the water issue, and the food wasn't great, and no readmission was annoying...but apart from that, (and being made very aware of my mortality sitting on a mainly metal structure in a park whilst lightning flashed above!) It was fantastic!

x
 
I went on Saturday and if you had put everyone that was in the park in their seats it would have been near enough full apart from the block behind the commentators which I'm presuming was left clear for that reason.
People were coming and going and watching seven hours of dressage straight is to be honest a bit boring so people were walking round the course, getting food, watching the horses come out the arena etc
There were twenty thousand there Saturday and 50 000 there today so you can't say they have held a lot of tickets back for eventing.
 
Hi

We were there yesterday, had a fab time and would love to repeat the experience. We braved the rain from start to finish including the thunderstorm, if Tina can do it so can we.

Our journey was smooth in and out despite a train being cancelled whilst we were on it, the helpers were all fantastic as were the service men and women who seemed generally happy to help. I think you take from it what you want, we had a fab time.

Yes there were many people there who had no idea about dressage, one American lady commented on a flying change 'oops don't know what that was but it certainly isn't a move they use in dressage'. I let her know it was and that there were 4 in the test and she was grateful for the explanation. I asked her why she had chosen dressage and she said the whole eventing thing was good value for money and you could come for the day, rather than just a session as with many other sports. She also said that they had been to the UK before and knew Greenwich Park to be beautiful. I disagree with comments that it should only be for the proper horse fans - why, don't we want our sport opened up to everyone, the Olympics is the perfect stage?

I am hoping as MiniNR is back from her trip to Equador to be able to surprise her with Olympic tickets so I am refreshing the ticketing page regularly. If you are going don't let comments put you off, on the second day there was plenty of food, water and the queues were not too bad.

Go enjoy, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity :) :) :)
 
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