There was news last week that the only Olympic Sport with tickets available was football. Some people were surprised at this, saying that Football was the Nation’s sport and they thought the tickets would be snapped up.
In actual fact the figures of the thing are quite interesting. The tickets start at £20 but rise to a quite astonishing £125, and there are around 800,000 that have been sold. This makes football the most popular Olympic sport, a fact the organisers have been keen to trumpet.
However, that only tells half of the story. The 800,000 sold still means there approximately 1.5m left and tickets are apparently available for nearly every men’s group game as well as the Quarter Finals and one of the semi’s. For the women’s game the situation is even worse, with no game – including the final – sold out yet.
On one hand this is a shame, as football really is the only truly UK wide event in London’s Olympics. Matches are taking place at places as geographically diverse as Coventry, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cardiff as well as at Wembley.
So the inquest has now begun as to why this should be. It seems to me that there are all sorts of reasons for the 1.5 million tickets being left. At cheap5aside.com, to be totally honest we are not gripped with Olympic fever anyway, but that is especially true of the football tournament.
People are right, we do love football in this country. But we don’t have any affinity with the football tournament in the Olympics. Team GB has never been represented before, and of course there is an on-Then there is the rather more important matter of Euro 2012. The battle in Poland and the Ukraine ends an on-going battle surrounding the availability of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players for the tournament. matter of weeks before the Olympics begin and herein lies perhaps the biggest issue that five ringed football faces: Simply it is not the pinnacle of their career for any of the players involved. Winning the World Cup, The Premier League, Euro 2012, the FA Cup, whatever it is, they are all more important, surely than the Olympic tournament is.
The four year sporting extravaganza is about athletics, mainly, then to a lesser extent swimming and cycling. For these people the medal is what they have worked for all their lives. Is that really true if, say, David Beckham?
The organisers are anticipating a surge in interest when the draw for the competition is made, but I cant help feeling that this pie in the sky and the football in the Olympics whether it is the men’s or women’s tournament will be shown in little highlights packages to a disinterested TV audience who are eager to watch Chris Hoy, Mo Farrah, Jessica Ennis or Usian Bolt.
And if you think I am being harsh let me pose you a question: Without Googling it, who won the 2008 football championships in Beijing?
No, I don’t know either.
In actual fact the figures of the thing are quite interesting. The tickets start at £20 but rise to a quite astonishing £125, and there are around 800,000 that have been sold. This makes football the most popular Olympic sport, a fact the organisers have been keen to trumpet.
However, that only tells half of the story. The 800,000 sold still means there approximately 1.5m left and tickets are apparently available for nearly every men’s group game as well as the Quarter Finals and one of the semi’s. For the women’s game the situation is even worse, with no game – including the final – sold out yet.
On one hand this is a shame, as football really is the only truly UK wide event in London’s Olympics. Matches are taking place at places as geographically diverse as Coventry, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cardiff as well as at Wembley.
So the inquest has now begun as to why this should be. It seems to me that there are all sorts of reasons for the 1.5 million tickets being left. At cheap5aside.com, to be totally honest we are not gripped with Olympic fever anyway, but that is especially true of the football tournament.
People are right, we do love football in this country. But we don’t have any affinity with the football tournament in the Olympics. Team GB has never been represented before, and of course there is an on-Then there is the rather more important matter of Euro 2012. The battle in Poland and the Ukraine ends an on-going battle surrounding the availability of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players for the tournament. matter of weeks before the Olympics begin and herein lies perhaps the biggest issue that five ringed football faces: Simply it is not the pinnacle of their career for any of the players involved. Winning the World Cup, The Premier League, Euro 2012, the FA Cup, whatever it is, they are all more important, surely than the Olympic tournament is.
The four year sporting extravaganza is about athletics, mainly, then to a lesser extent swimming and cycling. For these people the medal is what they have worked for all their lives. Is that really true if, say, David Beckham?
The organisers are anticipating a surge in interest when the draw for the competition is made, but I cant help feeling that this pie in the sky and the football in the Olympics whether it is the men’s or women’s tournament will be shown in little highlights packages to a disinterested TV audience who are eager to watch Chris Hoy, Mo Farrah, Jessica Ennis or Usian Bolt.
And if you think I am being harsh let me pose you a question: Without Googling it, who won the 2008 football championships in Beijing?
No, I don’t know either.
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