London 2012: Olympic synchronized swimming tickets oversold

Originally by: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16409480  Published: 4 January 2012

Games organisers Locog had sold 10,000 tickets too many for synchronised swimming at London 2012.

The problem arose after the first round of ticket sales last spring and synchronised swimming was an event which was not initially oversubscribed. When sessions for the sport were put back up for sale, a human data error meant thousands of extra tickets, which did not exist, were made available.

About 3,000 customers who bought the 10,000 tickets have been offered the chance to exchange their tickets for other events for which they also applied and some of the customers were swapping them for some of the highest profile events at the Olympics.

My reaction:

It is a too big mistake of Games organisers Locog. I would not aspect that from them because it was for a big event. They had to see the problem much sooner, instead of 10,000 tickets later.

But a big advantage of this is that some of the customers could swap the tickets for some of the highest profile events at the Olympics, like athletics and diving.

Of course, there will be a lot of complains against the organisers, if customers really wanted to go to the synchronized swimming.

So there are advantages and disadvantages because of the oversold tickets. But the organisers have definitely learned their lessons.