Olympics:Fans experienced frustration today as the ticket website for the London 2012 Olympics struggled to cope with the demand after the window for the second round of sales opened at 6am. Many people who had risen early to try to get the best tickets failed to get their online applications to go through.
Instead they were directed to a webpage saying: “We are experiencing high demand. You will be automatically directed to the page requested as soon as it becomes available. Thank you for your patience.”
Even some who got to the stage of requesting tickets and providing their bank card details were then told: “Sorry we cannot process your request. Please try again later.”
A London 2012 spokeswoman said: “The system is working, it has not crashed. Due to high demand some people are being held outside the system. For those in the system it is working and transactions are going through, but we are having to hold some people back from going through the site due to high demand.”
Some 2.3 million Olympics tickets are up for sale and the 1.2 million people who missed out completely in the first round of sales — almost two-thirds of the number who applied — have been given the first opportunity.
Most of the in-demand events have already been snapped up however — 1.7 million of the tickets left are for men’s and women’s Olympic football matches.
Organisers had been confident the system could cope with the demand. Unlike the first round of sales this is on a first-come, first served basis so the pressure is greater.
The ticketing system has come in for criticism with British triple Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins labelling it a “bit of a shambles”.
The 31-year-old cyclist, who is aiming to medal at his fourth successive Games next year, says many of his family will miss out seeing him compete.
He said: “I think, as most of the public feels, it’s a bit of a shambles the ticket allocation. It’s a shame when you know what works so successfully in other Olympic Games, certainly Athens, that they couldn’t implement those ticket systems here.
“I’d love to have my family there. I grew up in London and would love to have my mum and everyone there watching me but you know that’s the way it is I suppose, you just get on with it. It’s a shame but there’s nothing you can do about it.”