2010 Vancover Olyimpic Games

[SEABREEZE]

Anyone planning on attending the games.

What venues do you plan on attending or watching.

I am looking forward to watching short ring speed skating, down hill skiing and the Jamican bob sled team from the land of sand and water, and not ice and snow.

[McQueen]

I'm going to go on a small rant here with the Olympics - sorry to hijack..

One of the nice things the good folks a the US Olympic Committee headquarters did to us several years ago, was sign a contract with a company called Co-sport to handle all US ticket sales to the Olympics (summer or winter - anywhere in the world).

I first became aware of Co-sport when researching a possible trip to the winter games in Torino. They do a couple of things. One is they mark the price of the tickets up anywhere from 25% to 50% over the face value of the home country. (In Vancouver, you can't point the finger to a currency exchange issue). Then they ration individual tickets extremely tightly, so that as US Citizens, we are compelled to book our entire lodging/ticket package through them (as the tickets you really want, are actually available through Co-sport's lodging packages, of course not without paying through the nose for lodging as well as tickets).

Go on Canada's website for the games, and see what you'd pay in canadian currency for an event, and then hit up Co-sport's website for the US. Amazing - I think the difference in ticket prices even exceeds what the IOC even allows for markup, although they seem to get away with it.

There is not really any choice - if your credit card billing address is in the USA, you have to buy through Co-sport - or you have to take chances scapling - and in Italy, that was a big no-no. So, until I find a way around co-sport, I am not going to the Olympics.

(Don't get me started on the National Parks selling out their concessions to Xanterra - another travesty)

[SEABREEZE]

Mc Queen thanks for the heads up, sounds like someone from Co Sports has a very important uncle on the US Olympic Committee.


From what you said , it sounds like the best seat in the house is in your living room watching from a big screen TV. Perhaps another way to say it would be, the cheapest way.

[sevencyclist]

Just got back from Whisler today. We visited the Sliding Center where the Luge, Bobsled, and Skeleton racing will take place. Those guys are fast, apparently getting to about 95 miles per hour of top speed.

My son and daughter (13 and 10) were able to ski down the David Murray Run which apparently will be the Men's course. They are pretty excited when I told them about the significance of these trails in the next few months.

We also tried to stop by the Olympic Park (Nordic Center) on the way down today, but it was closed due to construction going on for the Olympics. The center in Richmond was also closed due to construction in preparation for the Olympics indoor speed skating. The BC place is also closed to tourists now in preparation. Too bad we won't be able to come back for the games.

[Polyglot]

I'm going to go on a small rant here with the Olympics - sorry to hijack..

One of the nice things the good folks a the US Olympic Committee headquarters did to us several years ago, was sign a contract with a company called Co-sport to handle all US ticket sales to the Olympics (summer or winter - anywhere in the world).

I first became aware of Co-sport when researching a possible trip to the winter games in Torino. They do a couple of things. One is they mark the price of the tickets up anywhere from 25% to 50% over the face value of the home country. (In Vancouver, you can't point the finger to a currency exchange issue). Then they ration individual tickets extremely tightly, so that as US Citizens, we are compelled to book our entire lodging/ticket package through them (as the tickets you really want, are actually available through Co-sport's lodging packages, of course not without paying through the nose for lodging as well as tickets).

Go on Canada's website for the games, and see what you'd pay in canadian currency for an event, and then hit up Co-sport's website for the US. Amazing - I think the difference in ticket prices even exceeds what the IOC even allows for markup, although they seem to get away with it.

There is not really any choice - if your credit card billing address is in the USA, you have to buy through Co-sport - or you have to take chances scapling - and in Italy, that was a big no-no. So, until I find a way around co-sport, I am not going to the Olympics.

(Don't get me started on the National Parks selling out their concessions to Xanterra - another travesty)

How difficult is it to simply ask on a forum like this if anybody lives in Canada who can buy some tickets on your behalf? Or in Italy 4 years ago?

[TMB]

Asking is cheap and easy.

Getting tickets is another matter.

There are so many tickets set aside for "the Olympic Family" ( that name makes me want to spew), sponsors, government officials, etc..... that there are VERY few tickets available to the unwashed masses.

That that were available were offered up on a lottery, not even first come first served, just a lottery.

We have tickets to a number of events and how we ended up with the tickets we did, is beyond me.

Asking for tickets is easily done, I don't think there are any tickets available. In part because of the block sales to outfits like Co-Sport.

[SEABREEZE]

Asking is cheap and easy.

Getting tickets is another matter.

There are so many tickets set aside for "the Olympic Family" ( that name makes me want to spew), sponsors, government officials, etc..... that there are VERY few tickets available to the unwashed masses.

That that were available were offered up on a lottery, not even first come first served, just a lottery.

We have tickets to a number of events and how we ended up with the tickets we did, is beyond me.

Asking for tickets is easily done, I don't think there are any tickets available. In part because of the block sales to outfits like Co-Sport.

TOOMANY can you explain further the process you had to go through regarding the lottery,and most importantly, did you get tickets for the venues you wanted, or did they give you what they wanted or had available.

[TMB]

My wife did the work of entering it, but my recollection is that the lottery opened up sometime last spring.

It was sold out within hours.

It was all web-based, through the VANOC web-site.

We actually did get tickets to some of the events we wanted to see ( we are only going to events in the VAncouver area, none at Whistler), but we ended up with tickets to events we did not want to see as well.

I know people who entered the lottery and got nothing, and people who entered the lottery and got tickets but none to events they requested. The tickets were all in packages , so you could not just request tickets to Men's Hockey for instance, you had to request a packege that had Hockey, and maybe curling and figure skating and ... you get the idea.

They could get quite expensive.

We do not live in Vancouver, we're about a 4 hour drive away and so we are driving down for that weekend and I did not want to have to then get on a bus and head up to Whistler as they are shutting it down to passenger cars for the duration of the Olympics.

[BengeBoy]

The Seattle Times did a series of stories a few weeks ago about the games behind the distribution of Olympic Tickets.

The story about the guy who runs Co-Sport, the ticket agency with control over many of the tickets, was especially annoying:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/olympics/2010280290_olytickets16.html

[JAY33]

I am up here in Canada and did get tickets to 3 events. I got Womans playoff hockey, maybe I will get to see Canada play, I got mens hockey Sweden vs Finland and I got ski jumping, preliminary round. The way I got tickets was entering the lottery and selecting the events I wanted to see. The only event I asked for and did not get was speed skating. Of course every Canadian wants the mens/womans gold medal hockey game, how you get them I have no idea. What is happening now is the auction process on the Vanco web site. Tickets are up for auction to some much sought after events and from what I read are going for lots of moola. So when I was in lottery these tickets were not available to me which sucks. But I will be there and hope to have a blast, should be very cool.