SnappingTurtle
Lieutenant
- Joined
- May 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,251
Re: Whats up at the Olympics? & Warning!
According to news agencies here it appears a large majority of the tickets made their way into scalpers (Chinese Mafia) hands through unofficial official (Government) channels.
The Chinese government has on the other hand said this (scalping) is illegal in China and there would be zero tolerance for “non-official” scalpers, but is making no move to combat the open sales of the tickets directly under the nose of Chinese police at the games.
The police have told Chinese media that ticket scalpers can be detained for 10 to 15 days, and also face the threat of re-education camps, where Chinese can be sentenced to manual labor without trial. The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said that since March 18, the police had caught 316 scalpers and detained more than 200 of them, including two who were punished with sentences to labor camps.
But it seems the police are selectively looking the other way in most cases.
Opening ceremony tickets were being sold for $20,000, basketball for $7,000-10,000. Those not being sold are apparently no big deal for the scalpers who paid no more than face value for them, or about $15.
“Wang Wei, the vice-president of the Beijing organizing committee, said the organizers were aware of complaints from sports fans over the ticketing situation and the empty seats.
"The empty seats are a challenge for us and we are trying to manage that," he told reporters.”
While many of the tickets were given or sold to sponsors and many of these are not being used it is a small percentage of the total number.
This was also the case in the last World Cup Soccer Championships in Germany. We (our agency) also had hundreds of tickets we distributed to/for clients for the preliminary events, where the big wigs were not interested in going. The stadiums were full to the bursting points even for the games that would normally attract little interest to soccer fans. Some flying in from North, Central & South America, and Asia, with less than 36 hours notice. All just for the chance to part of the bigger picture at the events where the lesser known teams played.
These were also the events I attended. I had no chance at getting tickets to the main events, but was happy to have gotten tickets to anything at all.
Oh well, I guess it is all in the spirit of the “big business” of the Olympics.
As they say “Let the Games Begin”!
Enjoy every one!
According to news agencies here it appears a large majority of the tickets made their way into scalpers (Chinese Mafia) hands through unofficial official (Government) channels.
The Chinese government has on the other hand said this (scalping) is illegal in China and there would be zero tolerance for “non-official” scalpers, but is making no move to combat the open sales of the tickets directly under the nose of Chinese police at the games.
The police have told Chinese media that ticket scalpers can be detained for 10 to 15 days, and also face the threat of re-education camps, where Chinese can be sentenced to manual labor without trial. The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said that since March 18, the police had caught 316 scalpers and detained more than 200 of them, including two who were punished with sentences to labor camps.
But it seems the police are selectively looking the other way in most cases.
Opening ceremony tickets were being sold for $20,000, basketball for $7,000-10,000. Those not being sold are apparently no big deal for the scalpers who paid no more than face value for them, or about $15.
“Wang Wei, the vice-president of the Beijing organizing committee, said the organizers were aware of complaints from sports fans over the ticketing situation and the empty seats.
"The empty seats are a challenge for us and we are trying to manage that," he told reporters.”
While many of the tickets were given or sold to sponsors and many of these are not being used it is a small percentage of the total number.
This was also the case in the last World Cup Soccer Championships in Germany. We (our agency) also had hundreds of tickets we distributed to/for clients for the preliminary events, where the big wigs were not interested in going. The stadiums were full to the bursting points even for the games that would normally attract little interest to soccer fans. Some flying in from North, Central & South America, and Asia, with less than 36 hours notice. All just for the chance to part of the bigger picture at the events where the lesser known teams played.
These were also the events I attended. I had no chance at getting tickets to the main events, but was happy to have gotten tickets to anything at all.
Oh well, I guess it is all in the spirit of the “big business” of the Olympics.
As they say “Let the Games Begin”!
Enjoy every one!
