Olympic Tickets

John Sturgess · Post by **John Sturgess** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:23 pm

England Hockey was given 2,000 free tickets for the Olympic hockey by LOCOG. They decided to use them as a reward for participation: so they are giving them to Hockey Clubs in a ratio of 2 tickets for each team the club has registered and competing. Clubs can raffle them or auction them; use them as rewards for volunteers; or anything else they decide.
What would be the slalom equivalent? How about giving Slalom Clubs 1 ticket for each paddler who paddles 9 ranking events or more in a season (7 for Prem paddlers; and allowance for paddlers on International duty). It would only involve c. 287 tickets!
Can anyone see the BCU or the Slalom Committee doing something like that? No. nor can I.

Canadian Paddler · Post by **Canadian Paddler** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:57 pm

Slalom Committee has no where near that number of tickets so an not even consider that volume of give away, they have exactly ZERO free tickets. There is a very small number of tickets that could be sold at face value and one of the conditions is that the committee can not pay for them the recipient must pay.

Nice to hear where Hockey got the money from. . . . .

But why let fact get in teh way of a rant

John Sturgess · Post by **John Sturgess** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:40 pm

As my post said, Hockey were given the tickets: they did not have to pay for them

davebrads · Post by **davebrads** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:45 pm

I've heard that the BCU have some tickets, I've no idea of the quantity, but it is no great surprise that they aren't being distributed in the slalom community, more feathering of nests maybe?

The BCU is such a corrupt and irrelevent organisation to our sport, perhaps we should be considering breaking away; I know I would be happier if none of my money went in that direction.

Canadian Paddler · Post by **Canadian Paddler** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:14 am

A very small number are coming to the slalom community:

Minutes of slalom committee meetings:
Nov 11: 6.2 Olympic Tickets
Some requests have been received before any allocation has been agreed. The number of tickets
available has still not confirmed. AH/PC will produce a draft of allocation methods. ........... Action AH

Aug 11 7.2 Olympic Tickets
CDW declared an interest related to his work. The committee has been offered the chance to purchase
Olympic slalom tickets by the BCU. As a body the committee will apply for eight tickets for each
day of the canoe slalom. The tickets are not for sale to third parties, AH to confirm the definition of a
third party. The mechanism for allocating the tickets will need review and a ballot may be necessary.
..........................................................................................
.......................................................Action AH

As I said earlier, one of the conditions is that the committee cannot pay for tickets and give them away.

This seems at odds with Hockey, as it is not hard to find "England Hockey free tickets" on t'web.

Post by **SteveM** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:32 pm

John Sturgess wrote:What would be the slalom equivalent? How about giving Slalom Clubs 1 ticket for each paddler who paddles 9 ranking events or more in a season (7 for Prem paddlers; and allowance for paddlers on International duty). It would only involve c. 287 tickets!

Don't forget those who either participate or contribute to the support of the sport without being club members (We didn't get a single ticket for any of the events we applied for, hint hint

)

Neil H · Post by **Neil H** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 1:25 pm

davebrads wrote:I've heard that the BCU have some tickets, I've no idea of the quantity, but it is no great surprise that they aren't being distributed in the slalom community, more feathering of nests maybe?

The BCU is such a corrupt and irrelevent organisation to our sport, perhaps we should be considering breaking away; I know I would be happier if none of my money went in that direction.

Careful Dave, you'll end up as cynical as me - it's a dark place, trust me.

On the upside it's Christmas so Ho Ho Ho.

boatmum · Post by **boatmum** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:59 pm

I guess the question is how many tickets were given to the slalom committee?

My understanding is that most sporting bodies know how many they have now.

Once the number is known then hopefully a plan for allocation can be announced?

Canadian Paddler · Post by **Canadian Paddler** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:11 pm

No tickets were given to the slalom committee. As the minutes say the committee were offered the chance to buy 8 sets of tickets (that is 8 tickets for each day). There is a chance of more, but (I believe) that depends on ICF releasing ticket options to BCU, to release options to the committee.

As you say the allocation is to be discussed at the next meeting (7th Jan)

Canadian Paddler · Post by **Canadian Paddler** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 11:25 am

Heres a thought. If YOU were on the slalom committee, with this small number of options to buy, how would you handle it?
- First come first served - to a volunteers phone? With associated grumpy people ringing once they are all gone
- First come first served - via a Web site - if we can find one willing to risk the surge when bookings open
- random ballot - after all it worked so well for LOCOG and no one complained......

And how would you define slalom communitee
- Slalom Committee (National, home national regional)
- Ranked paddlers - if so is this limited to a division (i.e. not 4), or the minumum number of times they raced (hoping this information is readily avalable
- Those that judged (again how many times, and hw do you tell if they were just judging and did not paddle)
- Organisers
- Coaches - again at what level, National, Home Nation, region, club, paddler
- Section Judges (if not in Judges above)
- Timing Team
- Anyone else?

How many tickets would you let people apply for? Just the one, a pair, or up to all eight? What do you do if you have commitmenst for 7 tickets and the next person wants 2? Offer them 1 or go down to the next request for 1? Or something more creative?

Should we prioritise any group? Such as those that can prove volunteering for more than 20 days a year?, or who have competed ten times?

Easy isn't it? Bet we get as many answers as there are responses, especially to the final one.

I do know that I will not be applying, as I will be working at the event anyway

boatmum · Post by **boatmum** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:10 pm

sarcasm never achieved very much but I can understand the frustration.

Maybe the first action would be to investigate why some disciplines have been given tickets by LOCOG and canoeslalom told they have to buy theirs?

Second action would be to poll the slalom community at large here - advertising the poll on the home page of canoeslalom website and perhaps on SCA website canoe Wales cANI and canoe England websites too.

Offering three options for distributing tickets maybe along the lines of:

1 volunteers who have put in excess of x days to the sport over the last 12 months at events

2 paddlers who can demonstrate x number of days coaching in the last 12 months

3 unfunded paddlers who can demonstrate .... Whatever

Other folk will have better ideas than me but it strikes me mat folk would be happy to vote on a small number of options and be satisfied that fairness and transparency has been achieved?

It strikes me that this is a really great opportunity to reward volunteers with an opportunity otherwise not available to them

PaulBolton · Post by **PaulBolton** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:11 am

Did I read it right? The BCU has tickets and will SELL them to the Slalom Committee!! If correct, only within Britain's level of bureaucracy could this be logically explained.

Canadian Paddler · Post by **Canadian Paddler** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 11:26 am

No Sarcasm intended, just trying to illustrate the issues that faced, and a belief that what ever is done some will (naturally) be disappointed.

It was not clear at the start if these were tickets for the committee to buy, or for the committee to offer to the slalom community. With the condition that slalom, committee funds cannot be used to buy the tickets. Not certain what tickets are available, ie price range (but I may not have paid attention). And then there is the chance of more tickets to confuse the issue

I believe that LOCOG sell tickets to International Federations (ICF),who sell them to National fedeartions (BCU), a condition being that you can not sell the tickets for more than you pay for them. So my suspicion is that Hockey decided they and the money to invest to offer tickets to the clubs. BCU has not money to invest in this way/invests it’s money in other parts of the sport.

Lets see how many responses we get, but historically polls here do not get a great response (AFAIK), the committee has the decision to make, and we need to move on this so that people can make plans.

Dee · Post by **Dee** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:34 pm

I am pretty confident that whatever tickets are offered should be taken up as there will be someone in the slalom community that wants them and however difficult it is to decide who gets them we should not let that opportunity escape. I do agree that distribution is difficult though.

I would suggest that prioritising anyone for any reason will leave someone disgruntled. So my suggestion would be a ballot based on....

Categories of those that can apply
- anyone who has competed at a ranking event in the last year (at any level inc div 4)
- organised an event in the last 2 years (or already registered to do so next year)
- been on a slalom committee in the last 2 years(national/regional)
- coached slalom paddlers in the last 2 years
- has section-judged or been on timing team in the last 2 years
- have officiated at an event in the last year

Last one does rely a bit on organiser being able to confirm so
I would also allow clubs to nominate people who can not show one of the above based on up to 2(?) applicant nominations for each vote that they would hold at the ACM.

To be honest I would think that anyone who can't fit into the above is probably not that involved in slalom!

Application Limitations
No-one can apply for more than 2 tickets
When applying people can list all the events that they would want to attend and indicate 1st, 2nd and 3rd preference (all others are assumed equal 4th)
All applications to be sent in by an agreed date.
Anyone applying must agree that, if they are successful then their email and/or phone number can be circulated to all successful applicants.

The Draw
First person drawn gets their first choice

Subsequent draws
- if first choice available then that is awarded
- if first choice is not available but is currently awarded to someone as a 4th choice then check to see if an alternative 4th choice is available, if it is then reallocate; if not try with the second choice and so on.
(This assumes manual allocation - a computer program could be more sophisticated, but even with 40 tickets manual allocation in this way would not be too bad)

Exclusions
I think I would exclude anyone who already has tickets for a canoe slalom event (I know this assumes that everyone will be honest, but I think most people are!)

Payment
Payment to be made within 14 days of notification of allocation, after which tickets are lost additional draw from remaining applicants take place

Publication
All successful applicants will be sent a list of successful applicants, including email/phone and which event they have been successful for. This should allow for swaps/lift sharing etc.

Spares
In the unlikely event that we have tickets left over then allow people to have more than two tickets and remove exclusion (above)

I'm sure there are other ways....

PS - We already have tickets for one of the events

Dee · Post by **Dee** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:35 pm

Goodness......didn't mean my post to be that long!