London 2012 - £10 charge to watch Olympics on big screens
Fans who wish to watch the Olympics on big screens in the Olympic Park are set to be charged £10 apiece, according to media reports.
The decision to charge for entry into the site has been met with controversy as taxpayers paid for the £7.25 billion site.
Around 20,000 ground tickets for the park are set to be made available each day and the Daily Mail reports that they will "priced at £10 or more".
The decision was criticised by London Assembly members.
"It is astonishing to be asked to pay to watch television," said Tony Arbour of the Conservative Party who represents South West London.
"The UK citizens still appear to be being short-changed. First they were not given access to the number of tickets they thought they would be because they were snaffled up by other groups and now they must pay to watch it on a screen.
"This was supposed to be a great public celebration, but it seems that the celebrating is going to be rationed."
The largest screen in the Olympic Park will be double-sided and floated on a pontoon in the River Lea.
Organisers have also recently announced that they will charge spectators to watch road cycling on Box Hill, while in Weymouth, where the sailing competitions will be held, parts of the coastline will be fenced off so that those without tickets will not be able to see the action.
Lady Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat peer and chairwoman of the London Assembly's culture and sport committee also criticised the lack of transparency in regards to just how many tickets for events are being made available to the general public.
"This is a Games for the rich rather than a Games for everyone. This obsessive secrecy (about ticket allocation) makes you wonder what they are hiding," she said.
"(Olympic organisers) Locog say that once all the tickets have been sold, then they will give us a breakdown. But that is absolutely no use to us because by then it will be too late to do anything about it."
Comment 321 - 340 of 340
Norkay, I'm sure the world was laughing at us long before this
The Olympic feed is surely provided by the BBC which is already paid for by licence fee payers and is everywhere free to view so how does anyone justify charging for what is already paid for. Shame !
I am now wondering if it can be legal to cordon off parts of the sea shore or countryside willy-nilly? Surely public walk ways cannot just be cut off to suit the Olympic games? What are they going to do with people who may have a house overlooking venues - board up their windows??This whole thing is so ludicrous the whole world must be laughing at Britain, I nearly said England but I would have been accused of being racist, though how much Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales are getting out of this fiasco is questionable. I only know we the poor are paying for it.
I would sooner stay home and watch paint dry, than waste a cent watching the "games"!
Pink Floyd had it right..."all in all it's just another brick in the wall!"
Someone is making a lots of Money at ther Tax Payers expense, and thats all that matters. The Olympics has lost it`s origional appeal, now it`s just Big Bucks for Big Business. most people I know are not Interested.
The Great British Rip Off.
Q: who are the Olympics for ?
A:For big buiseness and corporates and the great and the good ! (Sir this & Lord that )
Q: What is it for ?
A To make money for the above !
Q: Who is paying for it ?
A: The great british public.
Q: What are they going to get for their money ?
A: NOTHING !
they can keep their games and charges to themselves!!!
I'd sooner wipe my arse on a tenner... the cheeky beggars ;)
I prayed that Paris would win the Olympics - but as I am not a believer it didn't happen. No one is gaining from hosting these games, it is a farce and time the games were held in one place forever. With the money which has been spent over all the years a whole complex could have been built somewhere - not here, of course, - and could have been used by whichever country won the competition to hold them. I knew London would make a mess of this and how right I have been proved.
If Mr Arbour truly believes that "it is astonishing to be asked to pay to watch television", perhaps he could do something about abolishing the T.V .tax, sorry- I meant T.V license. We are not asked to pay for that, we are told, and I strongly object to being forced to pay through the nose for something that I hardly ever use as I detest the staple diet of soaps, cookery shows, property shows, and the ever more puerile 'reality' shows.
Of course it is not for the average sportsman as it does not even represent sportsmen. It's by professionals for professionals. Get back to ametuers and real sportsmen who are in it for the game and not the money. I and millions of others will get nothing from these Olympics even though it is our money. Come back A.A.A.
This really is rip-off Britain. The fat cats fleece us every opportunity they get. The whole Olympic ticket thing has been a complete fiasco. The application process was convoluted and difficult to fathom. They are going to charge parents with a baby the price of an extra seat, even though the baby will be carried, and now the tight-fisted, money grabbing @#$% want to charge people for sitting in a park and looking a a TV! This country has plumbed the depths this time! Any interest I had in these pathetic 'Olympic games' has long since evaporated. The powers that be, Seb Coe and the fat cats can take these games and shove them up their collective arse!
no. 310 - have fun :)
"It is astonishing to be asked to pay to watch television," said Tony Arbour of the Conservative Party who represents South West London. "
Funny that is exaclty what I think when I pay for my TV licence every year...
Boycott the games
Complete and utter waste of money, and no doubt it will all end in tears, apart from us actually winning very much we now have the terror threat to contend with, and we all know how the govt deals with them dont we, the transport situation will be hell for those trying to get to work and for what , just to say we had the olympics here, who really cares? I know I dont and I wont even be watching it on the telly. That money could have done a lot of good work in London
Why am not surprised at this latest scam to charge specatators money to see it on screen. Its about time the government stepped in and say enough is enough. Profit should not come into sport. Its very corrupting.
Beware Greks bearing gift!
The Olympics have always become an albatross around the necks of the host country.
We should have let the French have them.
... or pehaps not as I shall be in France for the whole of the Olypics and will miss it all.
Yippee!!!
We over here in Europe laugh at how your British Government takes the pees out of yous. You pay 7 billion in your taxes and then they ask you to pay 10 ponds to watcha big scren ? ahahahahahahahahahahhaahaaa O yoos are fools indeed.
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account