Commonwealth games re sale of tickets

sportsstar

Just wondering if there are any other disgruntled purchasers of Commonwealth games tickets that are unhappy with the system for reselling tickets?
Myself and some colleagues entered the ballot in September 2021 and applied for various tickets. We received confirmation of successful ballot entries in October and payment for the tickets were taken. We were more successful in the ballot than anticipated and knew we would need to resell some of the tickets. 
The commonwealth games website said that resale of tickets would be available in early 2022 and they wanted sellers to use the official platform. After several months the platform went live 31st May, just under 2 months before the start of the games. The system works by the seller putting the unwanted tickets on the site and if a purchaser wants to buy them, then you will get an email notification and the monies should be with you in 30 days.
We are disgruntled because 2 months is not giving us enough chance to sell the tickets, the games kept changing the timings on when the platform would be available and the website in 2021 was not clear on how resales would work and only went into detail in 2022.
When we have previously purchased tickets for the Olympic games and various concerts, where we have been unable to attend it has been really straight forward to return the tickets and receive a refund through the official channels. I am concerned that due to the delay in the resale platform and potentially the lack of take up for the games tickets, that we will not achieve a resale. The Commonwealth games starts in 31 days, and there really feels like a lack of awareness and even advertisement for such a huge event.

eskbanker

Even if the organisers breached actual commitments to open up the resale platform sooner than they did, I suspect that you'd have your work cut out to prove that you'd have resold tickets in, say, May, if they failed to sell in June or July - surely such resale platforms only really come into play if/when tickets have sold out through the primary channel, so buying more than you need is always a gamble if it turns out that you end up with tickets for less appealing events that nobody is interested in buying.

sheramber

https://www.birmingham2022.com/tickets?gclid=CjwKCAjwquWVBhBrEiwAt1Kmwi2ZqEFwvwR_swx-ZHoj6ZHQGMHTzFV-3s5SI_ij9epyYLm6Y_9pnRoCCekQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Tickets for Aquatics - Swimming, Cycling - Mountain Biking, Cycling Time Trial, Cycling - Road Race, Gymnastics - Artistic and Triathlon & Para Triathlon are now resale tickets only. Tickets for all other sports are still available.

sportsstar

Thank you for your responses.
I do realise that going for more tickets in the ballot was a gamble, but I had no issues with the Olympic games resales as these were refunded quickly. The tickets we have are for athletics, so hopefully these will sell.

Ath_Wat

sportsstar said:

Thank you for your responses.
I do realise that going for more tickets in the ballot was a gamble, but I had no issues with the Olympic games resales as these were refunded quickly. 

Well that was the Olympics, they knew they could resell them. When they find someone actually willing to pay real money to watch the Commonwealth Games, they have to make us much out of it as they can.

mattyprice4004

sportsstar said:

Thank you for your responses.
I do realise that going for more tickets in the ballot was a gamble, but I had no issues with the Olympic games resales as these were refunded quickly. The tickets we have are for athletics, so hopefully these will sell.

You’ve said it yourself - it was a gamble. 

Hopefully you can sell them and it’ll pay off, but you need to be prepared for the eventuality that they don’t sell. 

sportsstar

Just a quick update on this, but the games website closed the resale platform on 4th July (opened on 31st May). I had no notification of this and only learnt of it through a colleague who is a volunteer. Looking at the website FAQs you can transfer to a family member or friend, but you cannot advertise the tickets for sale. I've learnt an expensive lesson. 

The Commonwealth games starts in 19 days, and still there is little advertisement for such a huge event, such a shame.

Manxman_in_exile

It's a great shame.  If you didn't already know the event was on you'd be completely unaware of it because of the lack of promotion.

I did look at the website a few months ago but it was rubbish.  I was interested in looking at the schedules for some of the niche sports (eg weightlifting) but I couldn't work out how to get to a full schedule or to see what weight categories were on which days.

It was hopeless and after a while looking I just gave up.

EmRR79

sportsstar said:

Just wondering if there are any other disgruntled purchasers of Commonwealth games tickets that are unhappy with the system for reselling tickets?
Myself and some colleagues entered the ballot in September 2021 and applied for various tickets. We received confirmation of successful ballot entries in October and payment for the tickets were taken. We were more successful in the ballot than anticipated and knew we would need to resell some of the tickets. 
The commonwealth games website said that resale of tickets would be available in early 2022 and they wanted sellers to use the official platform. After several months the platform went live 31st May, just under 2 months before the start of the games. The system works by the seller putting the unwanted tickets on the site and if a purchaser wants to buy them, then you will get an email notification and the monies should be with you in 30 days.
We are disgruntled because 2 months is not giving us enough chance to sell the tickets, the games kept changing the timings on when the platform would be available and the website in 2021 was not clear on how resales would work and only went into detail in 2022.
When we have previously purchased tickets for the Olympic games and various concerts, where we have been unable to attend it has been really straight forward to return the tickets and receive a refund through the official channels. I am concerned that due to the delay in the resale platform and potentially the lack of take up for the games tickets, that we will not achieve a resale. The Commonwealth games starts in 31 days, and there really feels like a lack of awareness and even advertisement for such a huge event.

Same here. I have four top-price tickets for the final evening session of Track and Field that I put on the resale platform, hoping to be able to get my money back but not knowing it would only be open for a short time. There was nothing to alert consumers to this VERY short on-sale period. I don't really understand why the organisers closed the resale platform nearly a month ahead of the Games, either – especially not as they're saying tickets are really hard to get hold of/it's going to sell out in their latest PR messaging. I don't know anyone near enough to Birmingham or enough of a fan of athletics to transfer the tickets to, and now that's going to mean there'll be four empty seats in the stadium. The last thing athletes want is to see lots of empty seats, which might well happen if others have had the same experience with the rubbish resale platform.

Like you say, there has been SO little publicity about it, and the public's attention has been drawn away until now by other things like the Jubilee, EUROs, Wimbledon etc... 

I'm a huge sports fan and try and get to as many international sport meets as possible, but I'll certainly think twice about buying tickets for a multi-sport tournament again. London 2012 resale was efficient and fair to consumers, but Glasgow did the same as Birmingham has to ticket holders with a shoddy resale platform in 2014... Should have remembered!

sheramber

There are still tickets available for the evening athletics so they will want to sell their own tickets rather than people buying from other people.