London 2012 "missed opportunity" to inspire a generation by making tickets more affordable, claims report

By Duncan Mackay

April 24 - The high cost of tickets to watch the finals in athletics, track cycling and swimming at the London 2012 Olympics have been criticised in a new report published today.

With the cheapest tickets selling for £50 ($76/€59), the London Assembly's Economy Committee claimed there are lessons to be learned for future sporting events in the capital.

In a report called The Price Of Gold, the Committee claimed fans paid an average of £333 ($508/€390) to see Britain's Mo Farah win the men's 5,000 metres final.

Almost 60 per cent of people who bought a ticket for the men's 100m final paid more than £294 ($449/€345), while seeing Tom Daley land bronze in the 10 metre platform diving cost an average of £203 ($310/€238).

London 2012 has been rightly praised for staging a "hugely successful" Games which were a "fantastic spectacle," the report acknowledged.

It also applauded affordable tickets plans such as the "Pay your Age" scheme for children, which also saw those over-60 pay a £16 ($24/€19) flat fee.

Fans who watched Mo Farah win the Olympic 5,000m at London 2012 paid on average £333 per ticket

But, although London 2012 kept its promise to spread tickets evenly across its five price categories, the amounts charged "varied between sessions and, for a large number, were skewed towards the high end".

The Committee said the average ticket price for Olympic athletics medal sessions was £231.88 ($353.98/€271.99), with a fifth of tickets costing more than £400 ($611/€469).

"The 2012 Games were a fantastic spectacle and London should be proud of staging a hugely successful Olympics and Paralympic Games," said Andrew Dismore, chair of the Committee.

"However, for many ordinary people the lack of available affordable tickets for certain sessions meant there was little chance of them being in the crowd to see their sporting heroes win gold."

The Committee accepted the principle of charging more for medal sessions but suggested there should be a minimum number of affordable tickets available at future events.

It also recommended a minimum proportion of tickets for the public for each session as well as an overall target for the entire competition.

London 2012 raised £657 million ($1.1 billion/€770 million) from 11 million ticket sales, easily beating its target of £500 million ($763 million/€586 million), the Committee noted.

But the process was overshadowed by controversy amid claims that the system was not transparent enough and that it favoured those with more money.

The London Assembly were consistently among the most vocal of critcs.

The report analysed sessions in which Britain won gold medals, plus athletics, aquatics, hockey and cycling because these are sports where London will host or hopes to host major events in the near future.

London 2012 spectators

London 2012 attracted capacity crowds but the London Assembly claimed that the high price of tickets meant too many people were unable to afford them

"Given that ticket sales massively exceeded their target, this was a missed opportunity to reward those taxpayers who funded the Games and inspire a generation to participate in sport," said Dismore.

"We must learn the lessons from London Olympics and Paralympics if we are to host future sporting championships successfully."

London 2012, however, continued to defend their ticket scheme.

"We needed to raise the money to stage the Games, but we also wanted to ensure they were accessible and affordable to as many people as possible," a spokesman said.

"We feel we achieved this with more than 75 per cent going to the public for the Olympic Games and 91 per cent for the Paralympic Games."

To read the full report