2010 Ticket Information

[ckkelley]

Came up snake-eyes here.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by awvan

I was unaware those other 40% were already on sale. As Canadians (and eligible for the other 60%) are we excluded from purchasing tickets the way the rest of the world does? I'd love to try and get more tickets, even if I have to pay more, enter a lottery thing again or whatever.

The rest of the world, 40% of the tickets, buys their tickets from their National Olympic Committee...it's quite a different process. Each nation has a certain number of tickets given to them to sell.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

The rest of the world, 40% of the tickets, buys their tickets from their National Olympic Committee...it's quite a different process. Each nation has a certain number of tickets given to them to sell.

It would depend on each NOC as to how they allocate the tix. If you have contacts in other countries, it may be your best bet. I'd imagine, most of the time, you'd at least need a permanent address in said country.

[ravman]

got opening and closing ceremonies BUT did not get any hockey... grr

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by tintinium

It would depend on each NOC as to how they allocate the tix. If you have contacts in other countries, it may be your best bet. I'd imagine, most of the time, you'd at least need a permanent address in said country.

Ughh...i wanted the opening or at least the closing. I couldn't really care for the gold medal game.

[Stingray2004]

Originally Posted by ravman

got opening and closing ceremonies BUT did not get any hockey... grr

Dude... I was under the impression that the 2010 Olympic Games and what they stand for were an anethma to your political beliefs. What gives???

[johnjimbc]

Rav got opening AND closing ceremony tickets and is growling! My goodness.

The opening ceremony happens to coincide with the first date of my partner of 16 years. We watched the opening ceremonies of the Oslo Winter Olympics on Feb 12 1994 as our very first date. I finagled every package and single combo I could (within their stated ticket limits) to try to increase our chances of getting at least one pair of tickets to the opening ceremony. In addition we put in for a reasonable amount of second tier events and still nada.

So I'm really sorry you weren't able to get both ceremonies AND hockey. That really sucks. Please ; ). A bit of consideration for us empty-handed brethren.

[johnjimbc]

We watched Oslo on TV that is, which is how we'll be watching these as well. Had been hoping for an upgrade .

Also do realize my above comment is just good-natured ribbing. I'm genuinely excited for folks who got tickets, particularly if for an event they were really hoping for.

[VanHowe]

I am so disappointed too. I ordered a bunch of tickets for a total price of close to $3000 and I ended up with zero tickets. What infuriates me is that some lucky people who claim to have tickets are trying to sell them already.

[mr.x]

Didn't get a ticket? Didn't get a ticket you wanted? Then stab a scalper in the chest.





Scalpers offer hundreds of 2010 Olympic tickets online

Last Updated: Thursday, December 11, 2008 | 12:43 PM ET
CBC News

Tickets for Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Games were for sale on the internet just a few short hours after the people who won the lottery for the first round of tickets released were notified.

On Wednesday, the Vancouver Organizing Committee began sending out e-mails to the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who applied for Olympic tickets. Many of the seats at the popular final events were awarded by lottery.

By Wednesday evening, tickets to the gold medal hockey game were being offered on Craigslist for $2,500 each. On eBay.ca, opening ceremony tickets were going for $2,000 a piece.

Some of the highest prices were advertised by professional ticket resellers, with top seats for the men's hockey final going for $4,280 each on Ticketsnow.com.

Despite VANOC's efforts to limit the number of tickets ending up in the hands of professional resellers by limiting the number of orders per household, Visa card or computer IP address, Ticketsnow.com appeared to have hundreds of tickets for sale online covering most seating categories for most events and at considerable mark-up.

VANOC's vice-president of ticketing, Caley Denton, said buying from scalpers is still not a good idea.

"Selling tickets is against the terms and conditions of the ticket if it's above face value. So if we can find out about it and trace it, we can invalidate the bar code," said Denton.

Not everyone online was looking to make a profit. Many web postings were from people looking to trade tickets for other events or sell tickets at face value.

VANOC has promised to set up a sanctioned website for ticket holders to sell their tickets at face value with no risk.

Meanwhile, those who did not get the tickets they wanted will get another chance on Friday, when VANOC will open sales to other events that did not sell out — but only to those people who applied in the first round.

Any remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public in February.

[mr.x]

I didn't buy anymore hockey games, I already have Feb.18 at GM Place, but I did get:

- Feb. 14: Victory Ceremony
- Feb. 23: Victory Ceremony (huge mistake, i wanted to get the only bobsled left which was during the same time)
- Feb. 28: Cross-Country (afterall, it's the marathon of the Winter Games)


I wanted to buy more hockey, but it's a bit pricey not knowing who was playing...even for B level tickets.


I'm sure there will be more opportunities to buy tickets in the next year, whether it be through VANOC's future exchange system (where people will be allowed to put their tickets back into the system for others to buy) or scalpers.

[Yume-sama]

I thought there was going to be some good scalper prevention?

I didn't get any tickets I'm really hoping I get some from one of the sponsors.

[ravman]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

Dude... I was under the impression that the 2010 Olympic Games and what they stand for were an anethma to your political beliefs. What gives???

actually, if you go back... it was the NDP way back when in the mid 1990s that started to get the ball rolling for the Olympics.... gordo got this goldmine when he took office and then decided to exploit it for his exclusive group of friends.... like it for not.... Gordo did not get elected premier and say we are going to bring the olympics in 2010.... the work had already been initiated by the previous govt... he did support the bid and we won... but yeah....

and actually, i support the olympics... but i think it is time for the govt to be more accountable with what they are spending and why they are cutting elsewhere.... I fully support the viewpoint of the Auditor General... which i have pasted below

The INDEPENDENT Auditor ( not an NDP or a BC liberal... but INDEPENDENT person) wrote a letter today or yesterday to the Speaker of the house

“My Office’s two previous reports, issued in 2003 and 2006, conclude that British Columbia's share of the full costs of the Games is considerably higher than the $600 million figure that has often been quoted.

“Further, in the absence of full disclosure by the Province, each report highlights significant risks that could result in even higher costs to the Province by the time the Games are finished.

“...fundamental differences of opinion between government and my Office remain unresolved. While the details of specific issues may have shifted to some extent since the Office’s last report -- cost estimates remain, to a great extent, a moving target -- the underlying fundamental differences of opinion between government and my Office have not.

“Specifically, I share my predecessors’ view that the full cost of staging the Games should include a number of items that are not included in the official budget. ... the risks associated with some costs and revenues have been adequately disclosed. Should these risks come to pass, the cost of staging the Games could escalate considerably.

“...I have but one recommendation -- that government expand its definition of Games-related costs to include all items that are reasonably attributable to hosting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and report publicly on these costs and the risks associated with them.”

[jlousa]

Well so much for getting any tickets thru offical channels. Looks like all allocted tickets have been gobbled up, my computer spent rooms in the virtual waiting room today and never managed to log in, I finally recieved this message about an hour ago.

Due to overwhelming demand, the Priority Access Period is now closed.
Your next opportunity to purchase tickets for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will take place in mid-2009.

For more information, visit vancouver2010.com

[ambaUp]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

I didn't buy anymore hockey games, I already have Feb.18 at GM Place, but I did get:

I wanted to buy more hockey, but it's a bit pricey not knowing who was playing...even for B level tickets.

I found the schedules on Wikipedia. It comes from International Ice Hockey Federation's site. So if you have tickets for the 12:00 game you're seeing Canada take on the Swiss or if you have the 4:30 one you're seeing the US play a team that will qualify in Feb. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics_-_Men%27s_tournament

[deasine]

Just in case people didn't read the new announcement that was up: politics is to stay in the political discussion subforum.

[ravman]

Originally Posted by deasine

Just in case people didn't read the new announcement that was up: politics is to stay in the political discussion subforum.

so what is this... bully tactics eh?...

[jlousa]

No it's called cleaning up the thread, the subsections were creating for this.
Now lets get back to the topic.

[johnjimbc]

Did anyone ordering today actually receive a message or email indicating their order processed? If so, what did it say? Did you get some type of confirm number?

I know that sounds silly, but I've sent two emails today - one this morning and one late this afternoon as I could not reach anyone directly - due to a situation that occurred as I was placing my order.

After waiting over an hour in the "virtual room", I did manage to get into the ticket site. I quickly selected two tickets and two souvenir guides as I was certain things were selling quickly. I went to process the order, validated the information, and then clicked to process. It took several seconds, but appeared to process then - bam - got a cryptic error about some type of failure (not payment failure, sounded like a system failure - from my analyst days long ago).

Fearing the transaction had timed out (since the processing did take a long time), I entered the order again, completed another order confirmation, then waited, got the same error. Then, the WHOLE site seemed to come down (a nice bilingual message screen came up saying the site was down for system maintenance . . . i.e. it crashed).

I checked my visa immediately and sure enough two approved charges had just gone through, which my card provider confirmed via a phone call as well.

I sincerely want to believe my order went through and that I in fact did complete a purchase of 4 tickets (2 sets of 2), but without an email or an online confirmation due to the error and site crash, I'm certainly not convinced. Of course, when I tried to log on again, after getting the system down screen a couple of times, it went back to placing me in the virtual waiting room so I couldn't even confirm anything or try for anything else.

All new charges on my visa show as pending at first until a couple of days. My fear is the ticket system failed somewhere on their end - after the visa approval - but that the tickets were just dropped in some fashion since the whole "route" didn't end with a confirmation of some type. If that's the case, the pending visa charge would just drop off (like when you get an authorization for a hotel stay but the whole amount never appears). Of course, I'd rather have a charge and get 4 tickets - damn it!

Nerve-wracking to the nth degree, for sure. I was unable to log in for the rest of the day as I had time to try, then this evening I of course was again waiting until the inevitable "due to the outstanding response, the ticket system has been closed . . . look for us in mid-2009" message jlousa mentioned.

Arrrrghhhh.

Hoping to get a positive response from my emails. I offered to provide as much data as they need and asked them to contact me as soon as possible to confirm or correct the situation. But I'm not feeling too positive at the moment.

So that's my story on Phase 2. A trip to London for the Olympics is starting to sound nice and might prove a cheaper alternative in the long run ; ). Yet I'm sure I'll regain my excitement in a few days.

[Yume-sama]

Haha. Yeah, johnjimbc, I'm thinking Sochi 2014 sounds REAALLLLLLY good right now

Vancouver 2010 is far too stressful!