LOCOG Chair Sebastian Coe said the ticketing process for the '12 London Games was "not perfect" and "was always going to be a challenge," according to Owen Gibson of the GUARDIAN. But Coe said that the ballot system employed by organizers “was the fairest way of distributing” the 6.6 million tickets on sale to the British public. Coe “defended the ticketing process,” saying, "There is no perfect system. There is no ticket process on a scale like this, this is extraordinary." LOCOG said that the “majority of applicants will see money go out of their accounts by midnight” tonight. Coe “defended the decision not to publicise the fact that British buyers could theoretically get tickets on a first come, first served basis from some authorised overseas suppliers.” He “argued that it was right that those tickets were marketed to local customers, despite the fact that they had to be made available across the continent under European law.” Coe also “hit back at critics of the plan to give those who applied but missed out altogether the first opportunity to try for those that remain.” LOCOG in an e-mail sent to applicants yesterday “explained the ‘second chance sales’ process, through which those who get no tickets will get first refusal on those left.” Critics have argued that “it mitigates against those who followed the advice to be prudent and apply for less popular events alongside marquee tickets that have attracted” more than 1 million applications. Meanwhile, LOCOG Deputy Chair Keith Mills said that Sported, a “new charity that aims to support a nationwide network of existing grassroots sport projects that deliver social benefits to young people, would provide a support system and resources for thousands of small projects around the country” (GUARDIAN, 5/25).
