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Why should people in London get lower prices, or even free tickets, compared to people who will spend a small fortune to travel from other countries?

Yes, Londoners are shouldering a significant amount of the financial burden, but nobody is really taking on a crippling debt, are they? On the other hand, London will benefit from a huge influx of cash, not to mention the longer term benefit of the regeneration of several depressed areas and sports facilities (and - let's not beat around the bush - compared to many other countries, many of the UK's sports facilities have been in a sorry state for some time.

Instead of complaining about not getting free stuff, Londoners should complain about the catastrophic financial and project mismanagement that allowed the costs of the event to spiral out of control for so long.

Why don't sponsors distribute any of their unused allocation to schoolchildren in East London, instead of them being left unused as they were in Beijing which led to some empty seats? Good PR for companies involved too.

I must say I find the concept of a sporting meet being subject to EU laws a bit comical. Arsenal et al rightly reward loyalty of their season-ticket holders with first dibs for next season. One wonders why the 'season ticket holders' i.e. the taxpayers and Londoners shouldn't be doing likewise??

The balance is, I guess, the income flowing into London's economy from those not from these shores, not just in ticket sales but hotel rooms, restaurant bookings, retail etc etc etc. They might not come if they couldn't get tickets, might they? What would be really nasty is if a bunch of people from Europe demanded tickets and just flew in for the day, so there was no benefit to the UK economy but a loss of access for the UK public. Now that really WOULD be annoying. Ditto staying in hotels abroad.....

Where the grey area comes is IOC officials, sports body officials, media folks etc etc. How many, exactly, of those need to come? Sure it's like the FA Cup final for them, but the FA paid for Wembley, whereas the IOC didn't pay for the stadia in London, did they?? Sure, they granted us the hosting rights, so there's a quid pro quo to be had there, but is it right?? More facts needed maybe........

And sponsors can rightly say that they want a quid pro quo for their money. Sure, but what about the taxpayer?? What's their quid pro quo?? Is it the hotel bookings, the retail?? Well, they might say that London would be full anyway, so where's the additional benefit from that compared to any old summer season, eh??

I guess we can comfort our worries by thinking that if we're worried about this, it probably means that the seats are mostly going to be filled.

What sponsors might want to consider is finding a couple of potential targets in London/UK who might be customers in the future to be their guests?? That way all would win.........some happy UK citizens, a company with some good publicity and potential business leads and a greater feeling of fairness all around.....

Good to get the arguments, gripes etc out of the system now Mr Warner. What we don't want is all of 2012 up to the opening ceremony being a multi-month moaning session. Let's enjoy it when it comes no matter what.

But let's stand up for our rights firmly but fairly right now too.

A good article, that has concerned me since I first realised about the European Law on tickets.
However, Athens 2004 and Turin 2006 faced the same law, and (as far as I recall), National fans still managed to get the majority of tickets. 2011 is too early for European fans to really get exciting, whereas I think British fans will be much more aware of it, through television news and media. It's likely that some tickets will go to European fans, but i'm optimistic.

However it would be interesting to see LOCOG try and take on European law.

Agree with you gdodds that most tickets will still go to Brits. I also believe that more tickets will be snapped up by those living in London & SE as travel costs will be minimal & they won't need to pay for accommodation. Those of us living outside the South East will need to fork out for travel & hotels - practically this means that someone like myself will maybe only be able to afford a short trip to see a handful of events as opposed to 'locals' who may be able to shell out for more.

Also as the Olympics is costing enough, is it really worth LOCOG spending a shed load of money on legal fees for a case they probably won't win?

I think there are very logical reasons for managing the ticket buying process. London has a restricted number of hotel places. Typically summer is a very busy time for London hotels with tourists, irrespective of the Olympics. If a disproportionate number tickets are sold to overseas visitors, then we face the prospect of them having nowhere to stay or leaving events early so as to catch trains to hotels as far afield as Brighton or Birmingham. This is a massive logistics exercise that simply can't be left to an open ballot.

As a British citizen living in Vancouver during the recent Winter Olympics here, I was fully aware of Canadian Citizens given preferential treatment over ticket allocation for the 2010 games. Canadian citizens were able to apply for tickets as early as Nov 2008 during phase 1 then again during a second phase a few months later after initial tickets from phase 1 were decided through a lottery. I tried to apply at a later date through the UK Olympic ticket agency but couldn't get anything.

Surely London 2012 can organise a bunch of tickets that can be set aside for UK citizens - we still saw lots of foreign tourists here in Vancouver who were able to get some tickets later, or even buy what was remaining a few days before the events took place. After seeing so much Canadian pride over the Olympics and them having the opportunity to support their athletes, I have no doubt that this is what London 2012 needs - give British people the opportunity to enjoy the Olympic experience and fully back our wonderful athletes in THEIR country.

I think this EU law is definitely a step too far.

Dear Linzania,

You have obviously been out of the UK for a significant period of time. Unfortunately your comment "Surely London 2012 can organise a bunch of tickets that can be set aside for UK citizens" shows that you are unfamiliar with the extent to which the disease which is the EU has spread like a bad case of cancer. This is an organisation which has been unable to sign off its own accounts due to the money it has lost at the hands of some of the most indulgent members of the European Self appreciation society. Berlesconi, Prodi to name two but they've all got their fingers in the pie, just look at "Lord" (now that's a laugh) Kinnock and the Lady Kinnock, both graciously carried along by the European Commissioners gravy train of grace and favour benefits and unnecessary expense accounts.

So what's the relevance. This democratic organisation - the commissioners are unelected and therefore by definition this is not a democracy but a dictatorship - makes fatuous laws about the origin of cheddar cheese and champagne, lining their own pockets whilst failing to do anything of real significance other than to have petty arguments about points of self interest. And that,Linzania,is why we can't put aside a bunch of tickets, because the stupid idots that are our politicians pay heed to the nonsense that this organisation produces and is. The French have the right attitude, just ignore it.

As for standing up to the IOC, I'm surprised that Berlesconi and Prodi aren't members of the IOC surely they've passed the corruption interview already. But the IOC have managed to syphon off tickets for their children, their parents, the people who live next to their parents, and the people who they met in the supermarket last week.

Mr Warner, It's time that you started reporting the real stories around the Olympic issues and exposed the IOC for what they really are, a bunch of free loaders. The entire world is aware of the corruption that is so rife in this organisation yet nobody is prepared to do anything about it. As for getting tickets to the Olympics, visitors are welcome to our small Island, please visit and enjoy it for what it is, the beautiful Lake District, the hills and culture of Scotland, the wonderful countryside of Devon and Cornwall, the Jurassic Coast of Dorset and Devon. Please make sure that you have access to a TV so that you can watch the Olympics free, get the best views, experience the opinions of experts, quickly swap between the sailing venues of Dorset, the Canoeing venues in Hertfordshire, and if you really want to watch a bunch of unknowns circumnavigate short course on a bike you can always go and sit on a roundabout in Stevenage for a day - now that will make you depressed. As for going to Stratford for two weeks, what did you do to deserve that? Win last prize in the school raffle or are you a certified manic depressive?

Welcome to Britain - as long as you're not planning to get here by British Airways that is, in which case your flight should be arriving at Terminal Five, but probably won't.

Having just spoken to the Organisers helpline the registration for tickets is effectively a survey to see which will be the popular events which leads me to think this will be used to price the tickets. Having been saving since the games were won and having paid Council tax towards the games I'm left wondering who will get to see the prime events.

Let's not get too excited about this now - past olympics have been notable for all those empty seats. There's going to be room for everyone! What bothers me are all the foreigners I know who will suddenly want to come and visit me in 2012.....I'm moving out and turning the garden into a campsite!

what I'm looking forward to are the cultural olympics - that should be something quite fantastic!

This is very worrying, Adrian, especially if the prices they eventually announce look out of reach. But, widening the issue of local participation, a neighbour has just told me that only 2% of those working on the site at the moment are local. Do you know if that's right? Do you have any stats on this?

> I'm left wondering who will get to see the prime events.

Secret hint: every volunteer was offered one ticket for the "dress rehearsal" of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and could purchase one additional ticket for $50 CDN (~30 pounds?). So, befriend a volunteer. :-)

Second hint: have your VISA credit-card in good-standing.
You will *NEED* to have a VISA card to apply to purchase tickets,
because VISA ia a major sponsor.

I applied for some Men's Ice Hockey tickets, and got *ALL* the tickets I applied-for. Of course, none of those tickets were for the semi-finals or finals, but I (a Canadian) did see one Team Canada game.

Final hint: ticket-scalpers were definitely working outside of Canada Hockey Place, in full view of the Vancouver Police. So, if you really want to see a game, bring cash (typically 4 times the face-value of the ticket). Of course, it is "buyer beware" of counterfeit tickets, but I didn't hear of any incidents of that during the Vancouver 2010 Games.

I did hear of credit-card fraud, i.e., stolen/hijacked credit-cards being abused to buy tickets.