It’s nearly impossible to get a ticket to see an Olympics game unless you are connected to one of the corporate sponsors or happen to be shtupping one of the athletes. When Doug Feinberg, my former JV basketball coach tipped me off about tickets to see the USA women play in the semi-finals, I jumped at the chance. I haven’t watched a hoops game since my bench warming days, nor do I follow the sport, but I was going to be in London during the 2012 Olympics, how could I not see at least one game!
To learn what happened on the court check out Doug Feinberg’s article in the AP. As part of his job, he watches 6 games a day and has approximately 40 minutes to write an article before attending the next game. Yikes.
To learn what happened off the court and in the stadium seats, continue reading.
My “official” seats were in the upper mezzanine where the women player’s faces were hardly recognizeable (assuming I could recognize them). There were tons of seats on the main floor and after moving a few times, I found my spot. The only issue was there were no fans yelling or singing. There were a bunch of Olympics volunteers sitting in front of me busy being apathetic teenagers and a British couple who golf clapped whenever either team scored.
Where are the wild and crazy fans? Where is the excitment of being at a live game, and where is my future husband sitting?! A handful of people were waving American flags, but they were mostly senior citizens (and married). It was a sea of vacant blue seats.
Here is my suggestion, do not give corporate sponsors complimentary tickets, they go un-used. I can imagine the conversation of an executive calling her brother, “The husband thinks it’s not worth taking Jr. out of camp to see the Olympics. Jr’s performing in the musical version of Dora the Explorer. Want the tickets?”
It’s in London right? Ugh, not worth the shlepp.”
“Know someone who wants them?”
“No.”
“Ok. Well, these free tickets that were a nice gesture, are now becoming a pain in the ass.”
And the ticket sits and collect dust in some apartment or house somewhere.
So the bottom line is, give sponsors exclusive access to purchase tickets, but once they are given away for free they lose value.
Here’s a (slighly shaky) video and a few random shots from inside the stadium and outside. Note, the kid dressed in blue is not a fan, but another apathetic volunteer forced to do things like take pictures with me.
