Singaporeans are justifiably upset about seeing empty venues and yet being told that tickets are ‘sold out’.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is getting some flak for the empty seats. Why? Because they bought 80,000 out of the 240,000 tickets in the run up to the Youth Olympic Games. However, that is only 33% of all tickets.
The MOE, the principals and the teachers are doing an excellent job supporting the Games by giving so many students the chance to catch it live, even if it’s for two hours or so.
They are being unfairly criticised in this whole matter.
So who else is holding the remaining 67% of tickets?
Besides the schools, there are logically only two other major groups that would have those tickets: members of the public, and the event sponsors.
It is safe to assume that if you are a member of the public, you would actually go to an event if you bought a ticket with your own hard-earned money.
Sponsors, on the other hand, can sometimes be flushed with their allotment of tickets. They are given tickets as part of their sponsorship package.
What do sponsors do with their tickets? They give away tickets in promotions. They give it to their staff.
How many sponsors are there? Based on the singapore2010.sg website, there are 70 sponsors in total.
So if there are questions to be asked, it should be asked of sponsors — how many tickets do they have? What are they doing with their allotment?
Are they sitting on it? Did they leave it in their drawer? Did they give it to their staff but they cannot be bothered to go?
That is the question that should be asked.
That is the question that should be answered.
Hmmm I’m not sure if sponsors get free tickets, as in experience at huge multi-sport events, sponsors are usually allocated a number of guest or VIP passes for the entire company so as not to compromise on ticket sales, and they could go to any game with these passes. But even if sponsors are given tickets in return for their support, it is not their responsibility to search for people to give away the tickets? When we give others a gift, we don’t tell them what to do! Organisers should anticipate this if they intend to give away free tickets to sponsors.
On the contrary, I think MOE has received slack for buying the tickets and not allocating them wisely which frustrates the public who wants them – though when it’s said that MOE bought the tickets, it may not mean that schools have bought the tickets off MOE. So potentially, a lot of tickets are sitting in MOE HQ waiting for schools to buy them – I suppose what should have been done is for MOE to release the unsold tickets back to SISTIC the day before an event so that the public can buy them? This I guess is also SOYOG responsibility though!
MOE was quoted as saying that 95% of the tickets they bought were used. So that still leaves that 66%, the bulk of which must be in the hands of the public and special persons or organisations. Where did it all go if the venues are not filled?
Also, Singaporeans are not used to sitting for hours watching sports. They came and went. As Jana Lauren, wife of James Wong, the chef de mission, has mentioned in another comment on Red Sports, we don’t have the etiquette to watch the whole programme and come and go when the Singapore athletes are done. I guess that’s not the way things are done in Europe.