London 2017 organizers, the body responsible for organizing next year’s IAAF and Int'l Paralympic Committee world athletics championships will announce that up to a quarter of a million U.K. club members, coaches, volunteers and supporters have been invited to apply for a "priority purchase window" to buy tickets for the biggest athletics jamboree in this country since London 2012," according to Tom Cary of the London TELEGRAPH.
The "athletics family," as London 2017 organizers call them, "will pay the same as the general public" (who will be able to apply for tickets by ballot later this year) but will have priority access to tickets for any session, across both events, at all price categories. London 2017 Managing Dir Sally Bolton said that "it is an attempt to give something back to a constituency hit hard by recent revelations." Ticketing for major sporting events "can be a controversial business." If this core group of 250,000 all take up the offer "it would represent a sizeable chunk" of the 1.5 million saleable tickets for the two events, "which may prompt grumbling from other fans whose chances of getting tickets have been reduced." Bolton said that "this was taken into consideration." She said, "I think it’s clear that what we are doing here is ensuring that in the excitement about staging one of the world’s biggest events in the U.K. -- which is the first time we have done it and may be the only time we ever do it -- we give priority to those who regularly give their time and regularly participate in the sport rather than those with just a casual involvement. I think that most people would understand and accept that" (TELEGRAPH, 1/23).
