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news
Box Hill Olympic Test Event © National Trust : David LevensonLOCOG reportedly set to charge fans to watch Olympic road races from Box Hill
Olympic Games organisers LOCOG, which last month revealed that it planned to increase spectator numbers at the Box Hill section of the Olympic road race route, is reported to be giving strong consideration to charging spectators for admission to the enclosure.
The Daily Telegraph says that LOCOG is drawing up the pricing structure for entrance to the restricted segment of the Box Hill circuit, which lies on land owned by the National Trust and will be ridden nine times in the men’s race and twice in the women’s event.
Admission to that area for the test event last August was free to those who had obtained a special wristband, and news that LOCOG plans to charge for admission is likely to provoke anger and disappointment among fans.
It had been assumed that other than the finish area on The Mall, the road races would be entirely free-to-view events, but a LOCOG spokeswoman insisted that was not the case, telling The Daily Telegraph: “We have never said it would be free, we have always been ticketing that part of the route to limit the numbers of people in that area and we are looking whether we will charge or not.”
Meanwhile the newspaper also reports that a dozen companies have applied to organise the two-day London cycling festival, the annual Olympic legacy event that will debut in 2013, and which will include a pro road race as well as a sportive that appears likely to follow much of the Olympic road race route.
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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17 comments
i will gladly pay..........if they erect a grandstand and allocate me a seat!
I feel that £2.747bn of tax payers money is enough and then charging US the UK public to stand by a road side, on which WE pay taxes to tarmac and WE pay for the up keep of the national parks, So not only have we paid 3 times as tax payers, we will have to pay again to be able to stand there, I wont be going anyway now, because I was going to try and get tickets to Box Hill, but i'm not paying for it
Andywoo. That might have sounded confrontational. That wasn't intended.
I'm not sure why everyone is so upset by this. The Olympic organisers are charging people to watch what they are interested in. The alternative is for someone to run a games that is loss making which means you'll pay as a taxpayer for something you definately weren't interested in and never saw. This isn't rip off Britain it's a sensible approach that means we might come out of an olympics with a legacy of new venues that aren't crippled by debt.
Perhaps it should be covered by the huge amount of sponsorship and the involuntary contributions I'm already making to all of the events.I won't get to go to any events in the stadia we're paying for. I thought the roadside might have been an exception to the ticket process.
Yes we can watch it elsewhere, but just as easy on tv, Box Hill is where its ALL going to happen and if they charge, then this sets an example for this new "classics" race they want to start in 2013
Steady on. We can still watch it anywhere else along the route for free.
RIP-OFF BRITAIN! LOCOG intend capitalising on the Olympic road races, with this profit making venture; and have Police Authority back-up to ensure they make money from it!
We, just like Ostriches with our heads in the sand, will eventually accept this Highway-Man venture; and many supporters will end up paying to watch a race that should be Free to view from the roadside.
My initial reaction was the same. Then i remebered that I have seen 2 world road championships and they were both ticket only (Ronse - Fondriest & Zolder - Chippo).
Athens Olympic RR was free..... although i think they're paying for it now.
wa nk ers .
I am afraid these days the word Olympics = Loads of money.
What is next? charging the school kids for typing up the number "2012"!!!!
LOCOG, if they could, would charge every person walking the streets of London during the Olympics
The great British celebration of sport is turning sour before it's even started
I hope to be off to a sunny clime where I will not be watching any of the Olympics.
Great announcement to incite more hate after the program the other night that i watched - Dispatches - Olympic Tickets for Sale what a mess it was and still is.
Anyone who didn't see the program can watch it here http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od
Its just a shame the way its been done, Seb Coe and all his cronies creaming money in left right and centre to line their pockets
IMO, I think it is the same at every olympics no matter which city is organising it. It's a circus for the mainstream of sport. Wherever there is demand there is sure to be someone that is going to make money out of it.
No surprise there surely? With the tickets for track finals priced at a 2900% markup on what I paid to watch a very similar program at the memorable Manchester World Championships a few years back, the whole Olympics jamboree just stinks of fleecing fans to pay for just about anything from 10,000 security guards to tearing down many of the venues the moment the games finish.... It's an unutterable rip off from start to finish.
It certainly looks that way. It has changed a lot since Brookes started it, and not for the better:
The Games were originaly designed "to promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of Wenlock".
http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/
As in 2008, I'll make sure I see the road races, TTs and the finals in the velodrome. The rest is of no interest to me. Hopefully everyone else will be indoors watching it so I can get out for a nice ride or two on quieter roads.