Now that Olympic tickets have been on sale since Tuesday 15th March, you’ve had the time to think about which tickets you might like to buy. Here is my guide to buying (fencing) tickets.
Biased, me? Never.
Ticket prices for the London 2012 Olympic Games range from £20.12 to £2,012 – see what they’ve done there? There are 8.8 million tickets up for grabs and 2.5 million of those tickets are priced at £20 or less.
In athletics, the men and women’s 100m final will cost you a hefty £725 per ticket and in diving the 10m final for men and women will cost a surprising £450, whereas the fencing finals will cost just £95. I say ‘just’, but in comparison to many other Olympic sports, fencing is one of the sports which I believe to be good value for money.
See where I am going here? I know I am blatantly biased towards fencing, but I do believe that the Olympics is a great opportunity for you to see sports that you might never get the chance to see outside of the Olympic Games. I will always be a great supporter of minority sports, coming from one myself, and this is our one day to shine.
I believe fencing can be spectator-friendly. It will need knowledgeable commentators and enthusiasts to sell the sport during the Olympic Games. But ultimately it will be about enjoying the atmosphere, the tension, the passion and the sheer determination of our Olympic fencers battling it out to be the best.
I do not believe you need to be a fencing expert to enjoy the sport. There are many sports that I watch where I have little understanding of what is going on but I can still appreciate them. Fencing is fast, challenging, gripping and a combat sport. Many people can relate to that.
As an athlete striving to make the Games, I wouldn’t want to tempt fate and buys tickets a whole year in advance. I am glad the London 2012 Olympics organising committee has reserved a pool of 70,000 tickets for qualified athletes.
Athletes will be allowed to buy one to two tickets each from this pool. I believe one to two tickets is an absolute minimum. If I did qualify, I would buy these tickets for my parents who have supported me both emotionally and financially since I started fencing at the age of ten.
I am glad that a ticketing strategy has been introduced to help ensure athletes get the chance to purchase at least one ticket – even if I’d like to push for more. It may sound trite but without the athletes there would be no Olympic Games in the first place.
Ticket allocation should be transparent and fair. Hopefully this will be the case at London 2012. Lord Coe believes that it will be “the daddy of all ticket strategies.” I hope so too because unless enough fair priced tickets are allocated to sports enthusiasts, they will not be seen as the Games of the people but the Games of money and big corporations at a time when the city is under the spotlight.
Surely the Games should be more about Great Britain and her athletes and less about corporate entities who may buy up large quantities of tickets, and not use them. It would be a travesty to see empty seats. Let there be no repeat of the sea of empty seats that were visible at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Crowd support can take you to the next level and can make the difference between success and failure. Its power should not be under-estimated.
So get buying and support our Great Britain athletes in London 2012. And if in doubt, fencing is always a good one to go for. Honest.
Ticket prices for the London 2012 Olympic Games range from £20.12 to £2,012 – see what they’ve done there? There are 8.8 million tickets up for grabs and 2.5 million of those tickets are priced at £20 or less.
In athletics, the men and women’s 100m final will cost you a hefty £725 per ticket and in diving the 10m final for men and women will cost a surprising £450, whereas the fencing finals will cost just £95. I say ‘just’, but in comparison to many other Olympic sports, fencing is one of the sports which I believe to be good value for money.
See where I am going here? I know I am blatantly biased towards fencing, but I do believe that the Olympics is a great opportunity for you to see sports that you might never get the chance to see outside of the Olympic Games. I will always be a great supporter of minority sports, coming from one myself, and this is our one day to shine.
I believe fencing can be spectator-friendly. It will need knowledgeable commentators and enthusiasts to sell the sport during the Olympic Games. But ultimately it will be about enjoying the atmosphere, the tension, the passion and the sheer determination of our Olympic fencers battling it out to be the best.
I do not believe you need to be a fencing expert to enjoy the sport. There are many sports that I watch where I have little understanding of what is going on but I can still appreciate them. Fencing is fast, challenging, gripping and a combat sport. Many people can relate to that.
As an athlete striving to make the Games, I wouldn’t want to tempt fate and buys tickets a whole year in advance. I am glad the London 2012 Olympics organising committee has reserved a pool of 70,000 tickets for qualified athletes.
Athletes will be allowed to buy one to two tickets each from this pool. I believe one to two tickets is an absolute minimum. If I did qualify, I would buy these tickets for my parents who have supported me both emotionally and financially since I started fencing at the age of ten.
I am glad that a ticketing strategy has been introduced to help ensure athletes get the chance to purchase at least one ticket – even if I’d like to push for more. It may sound trite but without the athletes there would be no Olympic Games in the first place.
Ticket allocation should be transparent and fair. Hopefully this will be the case at London 2012. Lord Coe believes that it will be “the daddy of all ticket strategies.” I hope so too because unless enough fair priced tickets are allocated to sports enthusiasts, they will not be seen as the Games of the people but the Games of money and big corporations at a time when the city is under the spotlight.
Surely the Games should be more about Great Britain and her athletes and less about corporate entities who may buy up large quantities of tickets, and not use them. It would be a travesty to see empty seats. Let there be no repeat of the sea of empty seats that were visible at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Crowd support can take you to the next level and can make the difference between success and failure. Its power should not be under-estimated.
So get buying and support our Great Britain athletes in London 2012. And if in doubt, fencing is always a good one to go for. Honest.
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