London Games organisers criticised after one man is allocated £11,000 worth of tickets while hundreds of thousands win none
Blog: how successful were you in your application?
London Olympic organisers face a growing backlash from hundreds of thousands of sports fans who woke up on Wednesday to find they were ticketless, despite some bidding thousands of pounds for tickets.
Even Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, failed to secure any tickets from his personal application, but said it proved that the process was fair.
"I am proud to be British. No other country or culture in the world would have a situation where the mayor of the host city goes into a ballot for tickets for his family and gets rejected," he said.
But others were crying foul. The controversial ballot, held after 20 million people applied for the 6m tickets, was criticised for effectively favouring wealthier buyers who could afford to make multiple bids.
Among those left empty-handed were Frances Jauch, a primary school teacher. She applied for tickets to the hockey qualifiers and gymnastics, while her boyfriend applied for badminton and table tennis – a total of £160 worth of tickets.
"I thought we were quite a safe bet with hockey and table tennis. We went for two £20 tickets, as we didn't want to risk overspending and we don't live in London," said Jauch, 27, from Cheltenham. "I am really disappointed not to have been given a single ticket, particularly when some people have received tickets to multiple events. Also, the hockey is undersubscribed, so I can't understand why I wasn't even lucky enough to get one [ticket]."
Jauch, a former county-level hockey player, added: "If Lord Coe's aim was to bring sport and the Olympics to as many people as possible, and to inspire them to take part in sport, then he has failed dismally. I am a primary teacher in a school in a disadvantaged area and few, if any, of these children will have access to the Games."
But one man picked up £11,000 worth of tickets after bidding on a total of £36,000. Stephen Hunt, an insolvency practitioner, said he had surpassed his credit limit and initially did not have the available funds to pay for the tickets, but has since increased his card's credit limit so he can go ahead.
"I'd rather scrimp and save for a bit extra rather than be disappointed and I've seen so many people who have bid a relatively normal amount of money and not been successful," he told Radio 4.
Hunt's Olympic success prompted others to ask why there was no ceiling on the number of tickets an individual could apply for. There are also lingering suspicions about how many tickets were really available to the public for the most sought-after events, which is not helped by the organisers' refusal to disclose detailed figures.
At the 2000 Games in Sydney, it emerged that only 14 low-price "category A" tickets were made available to the public at one of the diving finals, with the rest allocated to corporate sponsors, the organisers, the International Olympic Committee, the various national associations and the press.
London Olympic officials said that just 8% of the 8.8m tickets for the 2012 Games have been set aside for sponsors, but admit that in some events, corporates will have as much as 50% of the seats.
Officials refuse to say how many of the tickets for the opening ceremony have been reserved for VIPs.
"All we are able to say at this stage is that there are as many tickets at £20.12 as there are at £2,012," said a spokeswoman.
She added that of the 6.6m tickets made available to the public, 2.5m of them went for £20 or less.
Disappointed fans will now have to wait until the "second chance" sale begins in late June.
Olympic officials say there will be an "exclusive window" for fans who failed to secure any tickets, to buy on a first-come, first-served basis then.
Those who applied but received a fraction of the tickets they bid for – but did secure at least one or two – will have to wait for the exclusive window period to end before they can apply for more. Any tickets still unsold after that will go on open sale to the public, but that will not be until at least November or December.
Would-be ticket buyers will be told by email when the exclusive window will open, which will almost certainly spark a scramble. Many of those who secured just a few tickets will inevitably be encouraging those who have access to the exclusive window to apply on their behalf.