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Your guide to getting London 2012 Olympics tickets

I went to the Olympics for the first time in 2008, and had the most amazing experience. If you’re someone that enjoys sport (any sport) it is an experience of a lifetime.

The ticketing process opens Tuesday, March 15th: 500 days before the Opening Ceremonies. This post is a guide to (most) everything you want or need to know about getting tickets to the London 2012 Olympics.

The basics

Application window, not sales
If you think you need to get your request in first thing on March 15th, don’t. There is a six-week application window during which you can submit your ticket application. All requests received during this window are treated equally. When the window closes, the London 2012 committee will evaluate how many applications were made for each session and price-point of ticket. There is then a lottery/matching process to allocate the actual tickets, and you find out what you get at the end of that.

What starts in March is the application for tickets, not the sales themselves.

Secondary market
Yes, there will be a secondary market for tickets. According to the London 2012 ticketing website, once you apply for tickets you’re committed to purchasing the tickets you are allocated. But there will be an official ticket resale programme run by London 2012. Additionally, there are always unofficial channels for reselling tickets.
What you need to plan
You must visit the London 2012 ticketing website to view the full competition schedule for the 2012 Olympics. There’s a complete PDF, and an individual PDF for each sport. It lists the dates, times, locations, and ticket prices for each session in the Olympics. It details which exact events are included in each session, so you can pick out exactly what you want to see. (Though for knock-out competitions like football, beach volleyball, etc., you won’t know who will be competing until the Games themselves.)

Key advice

Events subject to supply and demand. (Some are not obvious.)
Some sports are fairly easy to get tickets for; they’re held in large venues and not as popular a sport. Some are very hard: I specifically remember swimming being nearly impossible to get tickets for in Beijing. The venue for swimming isn’t very big, and nearly half of the available space was taken up by world-wide press! The demand for tickets roughly correlates to the TV popularity of a given sport; swimming, gymnastics, athletics are quite popular. Weightlifting, shooting, and modern pentathlon less so.

Also, you can certainly try to apply for Opening Ceremonies tickets, but there’s so few left over after sponsors and athletic associations and governments get their tickets, there will hardly be any available. Just so you have appropriate expectations…

Remember this when applying; you’re unlikely to get all of the tickets you want, and even less likely when they’re very popular events.

Lesser-known sports can be incredibly cool
This surprised me a bit based on my Beijing experience, but’s absolutely true. The B finals in weightlifting (where they aren’t even eligible for medals) were just as riveting as any other sport I saw. I also saw Greco-Roman wrestling for the very first time and it was awesome! The organizers in Beijing had flyers at the entrance of each venue with information and rules about each sport, so if you weren’t familiar you could quickly get up to speed.

Fundamentally, the athletes at the Olympics are the very best in their particular sport. They have usually trained for years and years to get to that point, and are at their peak physical condition. Any sport where the very best athletes are competing with so much on the line is awe-inspiring.

Cheap tickets can still be great seats
This is something else I’m really glad I learned in Beijing. There really are no bad seats at a venue. The organizers go out of their way to install large screens so you can see the closeups of what you want, and scoreboards are everywhere. Certainly the more you’re willing to spend, the better the seat you’ll get. But even if you get tickets in what seems like the nosebleed section of the Olympic Stadium, you’ll still have a great experience. (That’s where LondonAnnie and I had tickets in the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, and we had a fantastic time.) Cheap seats at the Olympics are still good tickets.
Where you buy your tickets depends on where you live.
Buying tickets depends on where you reside. The London 2012 ticket site is for residents of the UK and (most) European countries. If you’re a resident of the USA, Canada, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Austria or Bulgaria, CoSport.com is where you need to register to apply for tickets. If you have any questions, check the London 2012 site here regarding eligibility.
Think about locations and travel time
While most venues are in/around the Olympic Park (Stratford), the Docklands (East London) or Central London, not all of them are. Rowing is an hour journey from central London, sailing is on England’s south coast, and most football (soccer) matches are spread all over the country. Be sure to understand where each sport is located, particularly if you’re interested in seeing multiple sports in one day. (Which you should!)

Also, this is a great opportunity for people elsewhere in the country to experience the Olympics without traveling to London.

Free public transportation
If you hold an Olympic ticket for any event on a particular day of competition, public transportation will be free. So don’t worry about costs and how you’ll get from venue to venue; it’ll be sorted for you and be free.

Recommended Strategies

Request as many tickets as you can afford
Tickets can quickly get expensive, so you understandably can’t apply for all of the tickets you want. (And you’re obligated to buy all the tickets you’re allocated, even though you could resell them later.) But you’re also not likely to get all of the tickets you apply for because of supply and demand. Evaluate how much you’re willing to spend, and apply for as many tickets as you can.
“Go deep” on one sport
I like/recommend the strategy of choosing one sport, and then bidding for better tickets and a deeper experience that sport. It’s great to get into one sport and really enjoy the full experience, from qualifying rounds to medal rounds. (Though for some sports, you’ll definitely still have to pick and choose!) But you can then combine this with cheaper tickets in other sports, so your money gets you to as many events as possible.
Be sure to include at least a few sports “off the beaten path”
Some of the lesser known sports can be fantastic experiences. The athletes are truly in it for the love of the sport; they’re never going to be famous even if they win gold. The drama of these athletes competing at the pinnacle of their sport is really one of the best things about going to the Olympics, and I’d highly recommend seeing some of the sports that are “off the beaten path.”

Summary

When you apply for Olympics tickets, it pays to be prepared. Think about how much you’re willing to spend, look into all of the sports, and have a strategy when applying. Then submit your application and wait for the results.

No matter what tickets you end up getting, you will absolutely enjoy the experience. The Olympic games are like nothing else.

History of my 2008 Olympics experience

These are links to the photos and blog posts of my 2008 Beijing Olympics experience. It will hopefully give you an idea of what to expect.
2008 Beijing Olympics photos (2628 photos) — by LondonAnnie

2008 Beijing blog posts

Photo at the top is from LondonAnnie here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonannie/2785078140/in/set-72157606873198904/

What I struggle with every day…

Seth Godin truly nailed it on the head today with a short blog post titled “In and out”.

That’s one of the most important decisions you’ll make today.

How much time and effort should be spent on intake, on inbound messages, on absorbing data…

and how much time and effort should be invested in output, in creating something new.

There used to be a significant limit on available intake. Once you read all the books in the college library on your topic, it was time to start writing.

Now that the availability of opinions, expertise and email is infinite, I think the last part of that sentence is the most important:

Time to start writing.

Or whatever it is you’re not doing, merely planning on doing.

I grew up loving reading, loving learning and this has transformed me into someone that constantly juggles half a dozen books, a couple magazines, a never-ending Twitter feed and a truly never-ending Google Reader. But as much as I enjoy it, when I step back I realize that I really love doing something about what I’ve learned.

The problem is saying “enough is enough”, stepping back, and taking action.

It feels like I’ll never get the balance right, but I try to get better every day.

Union Square Cafe — Finally!

A week ago, LondonAnnie and I finally got a chance to eat at Union Square Cafe in New York City.

I’ve wanted to eat there for over three years, ever since I read Danny Meyer’s book “Setting the Table


“ in 2007. The book came highly recommended by Fred Wilson, a very popular investor / venture capitalist in New York. Danny is a fantastic restauranteur, and a wonderful writer. The book goes from his childhood through to setting up Union Square Cafe, to extending his restaurant group with new and innovative restaurants across New York. It’s a cross between a behind-the-scenes “foodie” book and a business book; Danny is a very wise man. Like Fred, I’d recommend “Setting the Table” for anyone that is in any sort of service business; you’ll learn something inside.

But back to the food…

Union Square Cafe serves what I would call classic American food, but at a level of quality and perfection that I haven’t ever experienced before. Our starter was “Fritto Misto of Calamari, Bay Scallops, and Gulf Shrimp with Spicy Anchovy Mayonnaise” which was very, very tasty. Despite the fact that I can’t stand anchovies, the mayonnaise was very addictive.

For my main course, I went with “Grilled Smoked Shell Steak with Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes, and Heirloom Carrots”. WOW. Just… WOW. I’ve eaten at some pretty good steakhouses before, but this was out of this world. It was cooked to perfection, and seasoned just right. I think I was talking about this for the next week.

But just when I thought the meal couldn’t get any better, I got “Brioche French Toast with Roasted Apples and Brown Sugar Ice Cream” for dessert. Within one bite, I had found nirvana. I thought that the steak would be the best dish of the meal, but the sweetness of this dessert (combined with my all-too-controlling sweet-tooth) brought the house down.

Finally, I feel that I should comment on the service and staff. Danny Meyer has got a reputation of running restaurants that truly focus on service, and this was very, very clear. They were attentive and friendly when we needed them, and melted away when they weren’t needed. Across the board, the staff were absolutely great.

So if you ever find yourself anywhere near Union Square in New York City, do yourself a favor and enjoy a meal at Union Square Cafe.

(Photo via Wikipedia Commons / Americasroof)

Meet the rockets that will be bigger than Apollo (SpaceX)

I’ve been a big fan of SpaceX for a long, long time. SpaceX has cracked the nut of becoming a viable, commercial heavy-lift aerospace company. They’ve redrawn the economics of the industry, and have a very bright future ahead of them. The last two recent successful launches of their Falcon 9 rocket have been spectacular!

Aside: I got my degree in aerospace engineering because I love the technology and the aspiration; I avoided working in the field because it’s too cyclical, corporate and dependent on government help.

But onwards and upwards…

Earlier this summer SpaceX made a few presentations outlining some of their future plans. And those plans are AWESOME. Here’s what they’ll be up to in the near term as they develop the Falcon X line of rockets:

The current Falcon 9 rocket can get 10.5k kg into Low Earth Orbit. More tangibly, the Falcon 9 puts the equivalent to three and a half Hummer H2’s into orbit. Doing this requires nine first-stage engines and one second-stage engine.

SpaceX currently has the Falcon 9 Heavy rocket in development. This essentially straps on two additional first-stage sections for a total of 27 first-stage rocket engines! This is a healthy additional boost, and gets 32k kg into orbit. So if you ever wanted to compact eleven Hummer H2s and send them into orbit, this rocket can do it for you.

The Falcon 9 Heavy will also be able to lift more into orbit than Atlas V, Delta IV, or Ariane 5. There are only two systems on the drawing board that are potentially larger than this rocket, and they’re both Russian vehicles that don’t look likely to actually be built. (Of course it will cost you; $56million for a Falcon 9 and $95million for the Falcon 9 Heavy.)

But Space X is looking at developing a large new version of it’s first stage engine, Merlin. (These are speculative right now because it would take $1billion to develop the engine, but clearly thought out.) Powered by this engine, the rocket could put 38k kg into orbit.

Suddenly, this image gets very interesting:

This outlines how SpaceX could operate a Super-Heavy-Lift Launch System. The Falcon X Heavy could lift 125k kg into orbit, and the Falcon XX could lift 140k kg into orbit.

Within six months as the Space Shuttle program shuts down, there will be NO operational Super-Heavy-Lift system operational. And the largest consistently successful Super-Heavy-Lift system was the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo missions to the moon.

Where the Saturn V could lift 119k kg to orbit, the Falcon XX could potentially lift 140k kg to orbit. If successful, this would be the heaviest payload sent by man into space. (To complete the metaphor, it’s the same as lifting forty-seven Hummer H2s into orbit.)

Summary

I love the ambition of SpaceX, and that they’ve gone from nothing to multiple successful launches in less than a decade without any public funding. (Though they have had key public contracts to resupply the Space Station.) That they’ve designed it from a blank sheet, not being required to refit existing infrastructure or deal with an existing bloated bureaucracy is brilliant, and probably part of the reason they’ve been successful. Lean and mean…

Hopefully this gives you a sense of the future of the space part of the aerospace industry in the USA.