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Hoy asks for organisers' help in resolving Olympic ticket headache

Family members who have followed Scot's success around the world risk missing out in home Olympics...

Four-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy has pleaded with the organisers of London 2012 to provide more tickets for competitors' families at the Games and help resolve his dilemma of choosing which of his nearest and dearest will get to watch his bid to become Britain’s most successful ever Olympian from inside the Velodrome.

The track star, who looks likely to defend his titles in the team sprint and the keirin this summer, with Jason Kenny favourite to secure the single GB spot in the individual sprint, needs one gold medal to match Sir Steve Redgrave’s British record of five; the rower also has one bronze medal, but Hoy already has a silver in his collection.

Hoy’s family – his mother Carol, father David and sister Carrie plus his wife Sarra whom he married in 2010, have travelled the world supporting him as he has amassed those medals plus many others in world championships and other events.

However, The Scotsman reports that like many other members of the British Olympic team, Hoy faces a headache over which members of his family will be able to watch him compete this summer, with only two tickets allocated to him per session in which he competes.

“It is difficult because my family has travelled all over the world to Sydney, Athens, Beijing to watch me compete,” said the 36-year-old.

“You’d think the one you could get tickets for is your home event.

“Everybody wants to be there to see it but obviously you’d think the families would be top of the list.

“We’re trying every possible angle to try and get tickets, we’re working 24/7.”

In the case of Hoy and other track cyclists, the situation is made more difficult by the relatively low capacity of the Velodrome plus the huge demand for tickets for events there.

However, the Scot believes that organisers should hold back more tickets for families.

“I don’t think athletes’ families have been taken into consideration.” He insisted.

“It’s not rocket science. It just needs somebody to sit down and think about the families who have got the athletes to this level. Just a little bit of payback would be very welcome.”

A spokesman LOCOG, the London Olympic organisers, told The Scotsman: “LOCOG is guaranteeing all athletes up to two tickets for family and friends for every session they compete in, and this hasn’t always been the case for previous Games.

“Athletes’ families typically can also get tickets from governing bodies and their national Olympic committees. Sponsor Procter & Gamble is also helping Team GB athletes’ families with tickets.”

While Hoy’s aim this summer is gold medals, he implied that after London, he might have a more domestic target in mind by starting a family with his wife, Sarra.

“We have no kids yet but we’ll see what happens,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to putting Sarra first for a while after London and just enjoying our lives together.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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8 comments

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JonD | 11 years ago
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Channel4 Dispatches a month or so back was looking at ticketing, ticket reselling (inc bumping up the notional price by selling as a package, and packages including alledged access to vip lanes wrt Thomas Cook and Jet Set Sports (the latter have been involved in corruption around previous olympics but still manage to get an official provider deal :o). One hotel chain - asked to provide LOCOG with discounted tickets - later found out those were being resold at a profit and pulled out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17027253

The telling part was some old fellow who'd managed to get tickets to every olympics since 64 or 68, so he'd even booked his accomodation for this year. And was completely S-O-L as far as having any tickets this time round.

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ragtag | 11 years ago
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It's probably very similar for every games, just this is a lot closer to home for most of us. The Olympics has less to do with sport and more to do with making huge sums of money for corps.

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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It's beginning to not feel like it has the soul of a good games - still nice on the surface, but with the difficultly of securing tickets (we have none) and now this, it's starting to have the feel of a corporate event.

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alronald | 11 years ago
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Only two tickets for the athletes' familires but plenty for Coca Cola, MacDonalds and Proctor and Gamble

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cavasta | 11 years ago
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Re: the nasty taste about the corporate side. Have a look at this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/apr/13/olympics-2012-branding-polic...

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bauchlebastart replied to cavasta | 11 years ago
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cavasta wrote:

Re: the nasty taste about the corporate side. Have a look at this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/apr/13/olympics-2012-branding-polic...

Hoping Cavandish or the like gets all arsey at this and stirs up the honets nest

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bigmel | 11 years ago
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The entire ticketing fiasco was a farce, and there is a nasty taste about the corporate side to the event when you read stories like this.

Have you seen the latest MacDonalds TV ad where the woman misses a badminton match so that she can stuff a burger into her face!
I assume that's the message that the olympic organisers wanted to promote.

Grrrrrrrrrr

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cavasta | 11 years ago
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It makes you bloody sick that the athletes - especially those of Hoy's calibre - have been allocated just two tickets for family members per event, and yet every week big businesses run competitions with hundreds - even thousands - of tickets to give away.

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