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How important is Football to the Olympics as London Organisers Remove Half a Million Football Tickets?
Friday 20th July 2012 | Osh
London organisers have taken the big step of removing 500,000 football tickets to ensure that all football stadiums which will be used will be full. The organisers have accepted that all football tickets will not be sold, thus them making this move.
The reduction of sales in tickets had led to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games reducing the size of venues, five days before the first football event. This is to ensure that all games are viewed by full capacity. There are still 250,000 tickets available, with 200,000 more to be made available over the next eight days with 150,000 free tickets for school children.
The main venues that have been affected are Hampden Park in Glasgow which holds 52,000 people and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff which has a capacity of 72,000. However, Wembley won’t be affected.
Locog had just under a million tickets to sell, with 650,000 of them being football tickets, with the remaining 300,000 being for other events and the ceremonies. Despite the low demand of tickets for football, the sales of tickets for other events have been rising. A further 200,000 are set to go online over the next eight days.
The lack of sold tickets for the Olympic football is an indication that football shouldn’t be an Olympic sport. Football is in a league of its own and it should stay like that. It’s evident that many spectators would prefer to watch proper Olympic events, rather than football that are based for the majority of nine months a year. Events like gymnastics, swimming and athletics make the Olympics what it is. Many people have suggested that commercial sports shouldn’t be involved in the Olympics and the lack of tickets that have been sold have backed up that suggestion.
Removing 500,000 football tickets to reduce the size of venues so stadiums are full to the reduced capacity will mean parts of stadiums will be covered by nets. That’s not what people want when attending the Olympics. Stadiums should be full; people should be enjoying themselves, while creating an unbelievable atmosphere for the greatest event in the world. That’s what it should be about. Instead of removing half a million football tickets, London organisers could have given tickets away for free to fill up stadiums. More people would attend it. It would create a better atmosphere. It would give people an enjoyable experience. Isn’t that what the Olympics are about? Giving everyone an opportunity and providing an enthralling experience? But than those who just think about the money.
There’s no doubt that football is the beautiful game and it always will be, but there’s no place for it at the Olympics. This may be an indication to Olympic organisers and to the International Olympic Committee that they may need to abolish football from the Olympics. Yes, it may be an extraordinary event, but for footballers, they’ve got the World Cup to prepare and look forward to.
However, I could be wrong. There could be many people who would want football to carry on as an Olympic Sport. Euro 2012 ended at the start of July and a few weeks later, it’s the Olympic football. There are some that would be glad that football is back on our screens, but some would question the importance of football to the Olympics. Is football that important for the Olympics? Would it be missed if it wasn’t part of the games?
Locog have indicated that they’re still expected to reach their target revenue of £600 million by the time the opening ceremony takes place a week on Friday.
Chairman of Locog, Lord Coe said “We have reduced the size of venues but we have sold more football tickets than anywhere else. We are not in bad shape with tickets”.
The decision to withdraw excessive amount of ticket will cost organisers lost revenue of about £10 million. Most of the tickets are on sale vary are between £20 and £65.
Despite the reduction of football tickets, it’s something that spectators won’t worry about. They’re in one of the greatest cities in the world to witness the greatest sporting event in the world!
By Hiten Mandalia
