To avoid a computer crash when London Olympics tickets go on sale tomorrow, the organisers are banking on a very British tradition: queueing.
The opening of the public ballot for 6.6 million tickets is the most eagerly awaited moment in the build-up to the summer of 2012, and the nationwide demand to be at the first home Olympics since 1948 is expected to be huge.
With almost all the applications channelled through a single website run by the London Olympic Organising Committee (Locog), there is a risk of the technological meltdown that blighted ticket sales for the Beijing Games in 2008. London organisers insist that their system, managed by Ticketmaster, can cope, but are hedging their bets by requesting a modicum of restraint in the biggest online ticket sale ever conducted.
They emphasise that the system is not first-come, first-served — the ballot is open for 42 days, until midnight on April 26. “An application in April is just as valid as one in March. It’s a marathon not a sprint,” Paul Williamson, Locog’s head of ticketing, said. “We want people to be talking about it in the office around the coffee machine and sitting down in their kitchens with wall charts to plan which events to attend before logging on. It’s not an instant purchase.”
Many of the 2.5 million people who registered their interest in tickets are expected to hold back to ease pressure on the site, which will operate a check-out basket familiar to online shoppers.
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There are 650 sessions across 26 sports and 17 days to choose from and individuals will be limited to a maximum of 20 events each. A limit of four tickets per person is in place for some of the most popular events, including the men’s 100 metres final. Tickets for oversubscribed events will be allocated by ballot.
People are being urged to apply only for what they can afford because they will be committed to pay for every successful bid, as they would on an online auction site. Applicants will find out whether or not they have secured tickets by June 24 when Visa, the only valid credit card as an Olympic sponsor, will debit the cost of tickets which ranges from £20 to £2,012.
Tickets, along with free travel cards, will not be posted until the summer of 2012.
In the rush for tickets, applicants have been warned not to be duped by convincing but fraudulent websites.