So the Paralympic Games are sold out! That is the spin coming out of the Local organizing committee, yet at most events on the opening day of competition there were hundreds of seats vacant.
Many fans that had bought day passes purely to be a part of the whole Paralympic vibe have been frustrated that the only way to purchase tickets is via the Internet. The official line was that tickets were available at seven o’clock every evening, yet thousands logging in have found that when they try to progress to the payment area on the official website the tickets they thought they had just ordered had gone.
Many major sporting organizations have adopted the sale of tickets to their events being only available via the internet, yet it would appear that such a system, although great for tracking sales and sales trends is not popular with their customers.
There is no doubt that the system has a few problems, as even arriving at Olympic Park and trying to claim your tickets can be a issue. One ticket holder constantly being asked if they had printed out their tickets previously as the system would not let the ticket office print them out. When they were eventually printed the customer found out that they also received a day pass on London’s Underground. Which was after they had travelled across the city to get to the venue and pick up their tickets!
There are many who say that this is a fair and good system, but it has many faults and many fans it would appear would rather hand over cash and be given their tickets there and then, and know that they have them and for what event and at what time.
Like many computer related systems it is in the main good, but maybe in future a combination of the two should be employed. Luckily this is a one off event and one that leaves all who experience it uplifted, so such problems tend to be forgotten after the initial frustration.
