Fans asked to return 10,000 non-existent Olympic tickets
THE PLANS of thousands of London 2012 ticketholders were thrown into disarray yesterday after red-faced Olympic organisers were forced to admit they had sold 10,000 too many tickets for the synchronised swimming event.
Around 3,000 successful applicants, many of whom made group or family bookings, have been asked to return their tickets, purchased during the second round of sales last year, by Games organisers Locog.
Human error has been blamed for the embarrassing mistake that saw twice as many tickets put on sale as were available but, in a twist, those who have been asked to return them could end up benefiting in the long run.
Locog have offered customers who bought the non-existent synchronised swimming tickets the chance to swap them for another event for which they also applied for but were not successful.
As a result, someone who had ordered two synchronised swimming tickets may be able to exchange them for one of the more prestigious sports such as track cycling or athletics.
“In December we contacted around 3,000 customers who had applied for tickets in the four sessions during the second round sales process,” said a London 2012 spokesperson.
“We are exchanging their synchronised swimming tickets for tickets in other sports that they originally applied for.”