London 2012 organisers have today announced their ticketing policy – provoking a furious response from Greenwich Council leader, Chris Roberts.
Prices for the events start at £20 and go all the way up to an eye-watering £2,012 for the best seats at the closing spectacular.
Ticketing for each event is broken down into different tiers, with tickets for the equestrian events in Greenwich Park having a starting price of £20 for preliminary rounds and rising to £275 for the best tickets for the finals of the equestrian jumping.
Prices for the basketball events at the “North Greenwich Arena”, as the O2 Arena will be known at the time of the games, start at £35 during the Quarter Finals and rise to £425 for the best seats for the Men’s Final.
Some events, such as the preliminary rounds of the equestrian events, will have “special pricing” which means kids under 16 only have to pay their age and pensioners will pay £16.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to make available to London children for free, adding to an existing pool of 50,000 free tickets which means that one in eight school kids in London will get free entry – but with no preferential treatment for host boroughs such as Greenwich.
Cllr Chris Roberts, Leader of Greenwich Council, reacted angrily to the news that only an eighth of London’s school children will get access to free tickets:
“Olympic organisers have had five years to plan a ticket allocation which would permit the children of the Host Boroughs to attend the Games taking place on their own doorsteps. Instead 7 out of 8 schoolchildren will be denied that chance.
“The children of the East End were used by the Olympic organisers to win the bid for the Games in Singapore, they have been called upon endlessly to take part in photo-opportunities to build support for the Games and are even used in consultation groups to advise on how to run the Games and build a legacy. In return only one thing has been expected – a ticket to see the events. At least 7 out of 8 children will be locked out by LOCOG.
“Repeatedly, the Olympic Host Boroughs have offered to buy tickets for their children but have been refused. LOCOG don’t want the authentic East End , they don’t want our money, they certainly don’t want our kids.”
Tickets will go on sale in March 2011 and you can pre-register now.
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Cllr Nigel Fletcher, Deputy Leader of the Conservatives on Greenwich Council and their spokesman on Culture and the Olympics, commented this evening:
“It’s great there will be large numbers of free tickets for children across London – and that Boris is ensuring there will be even more. Whilst it might be nice for us to have more as a host Borough, that was never the understanding I had from LOCOG of the arrangement, and I’m rather surprised at Chris Roberts’ outburst, when he must have known that.”
Reading between the lines – probably – what is so shocking for Cllr Roberts and many of the other feather-bedded members of the Labour Group is likely to be the discovery that there are no freebie tickets for councillors. Yes, the gravy train stopped running around the beginning of May, just before Liam Byrne said “there is no money left”.