Government buys £750k in Olympic tix

Pokerface

So the govt has spent close to £750k on Olympic tix

However, many will be resold to civil servants working on the Games at face value and the rest be used to entertain foreign and business investors, etc.


Are people upset because they used govt money to buy tix or that they scooped up tickets the general public couldn't get?

They only bought 0.1% of all available tickets. And won't the money just go back to them anyway?

Is this a storm in a teacup and the press making a big deal over nothing or am I missing something?

rick_chasey

Don't think you're missing something.

At least they bough the tickets.

It's like any business. We have corporate seats at Wembley > keeps us quite happy - makes me feel better about my job sometimes (which is tough to do).

hulla the hulla

I'm in two minds about this - on the one hand they are using government (read tax payers) money, or rather not getting revenue from the tickets that could have been sold so it is costing them money which could have been used elsewhere. However as Rick says, it's standard practice to hold back tickets if you are running the show and you can choose which ones you don't release for general sale. I know to most mortals £750k sounds like a lot but in the context of what's going on here, it's a drop in the ocean. No doubt there will be a load of people not happy about this but that's going to be the unfortunates that didn't get tickets themselves, and those anti government types and / or media that just like to have a moan.

BigG67

Also worth remembering the Gov don't actually run (or pay) for the Games themselves. The wider infrastructure and legacy yes but the Games are funded by 2 sources; being some of the money IOC get from TV, TOP sponsors etc and the commercial programme that LOCOG run which includes local sponsors, merchandise and tickets.

rick_chasey

Hulla. I wasn't saying it was standard practice if you're running it. I just said that things like tickets to sporting events etc can help keep workers happy, the assumption being that happy workers are more productive.