Restricted supply and unprecedented demand means the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) is unable to guarantee all athlete and family ticket requirements for next summer’s Tokyo Games, now just over eight months away.
It’s also shaping up to Ireland’s largest team in Olympic history, with more female representation, across more sports, while also the most costly for the federation. Irish medal targets are, for now, a different matter.
“There will be some cases where people don’t get the tickets that they want and that will include athletes’ families,” said Peter Sherrard, chief executive officer of the OFI. “That’s difficult to say, but I think we’re better off saying it. We’re doing our level best, and doing it the right way. We are micro-focused in how we deal with the athletes, when they come into us, but it won’t always be possible to meet them all.”
What the OFI is trying to guarantee is no repeat of the ticketing scandal which overshadowed the Irish participation in Rio 2016, when Pat Hickey, president of the then Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), was arrested during the tournament on alleged charges of ticket-touting and money laundering – charges he denied. His trial in Brazil was suspended in November 2017.
Sports hospitality company THG was also alleged to have been in possession of 813 Olympic tickets in Rio, some of which allegedly originated from the OCI, when it was not authorised to act as an official ticket reseller.
In April, following an extensive vetting process, the OFI announced a new authorised ticket reseller in Elämys Group, the Finnish travel company which also handles ticket sales for other Olympic federations. Speaking at a Tokyo readiness press briefing in Dublin, OFI president Sarah Keane also admitted that more than three years on from Rio, the slate was not yet wiped clean from the marks left by the OCI.
“We have looked at some figures around how the Olympic Federation of Ireland, and therefore those associated with it, are viewed by the Irish public, and it’s fair to say we still have some work to do in that regard,” she said.
“And that’s a big deal for us, because that effects those that go abroad as our Olympic athletes, which is one of the reasons we do these stakeholder and readiness pieces, to try get out as much information as possible, to show what we’re doing, and that we’re open and transparent around it.
“But also one of the reasons why we’re so challenged by next year is that we have no reserves, or very little reserves, particularly when you go into the next cycle, into 2021, 2022.”
The Hickey fiasco effectively wiped out those reserves: with touting also illegal in Japan, part of the OFI message is that anyone interested in tickets also go through the right channels (the Games run from July 24th to August 9th next year, and already the demand has been unprecedented).
Snapped up
Some 70 per cent of all tickets went on public sale for the Japan market in June, and were snapped up “in minutes”; the remaining 30 per cent are allocated to the international market. Of those, Ireland secured 1,315, which sold out in two days, with 70 per cent as ticket only, the rest as part of packages. A further 1,044 have been secured for the boxing events only. They are being sold later, probably early next month, due to the late confirmation of that sport’s inclusion in the Games, due to governance and ethics concerns about the suspended governing body of amateur boxing.
With the Irish women’s hockey team also securing their place in Tokyo over the weekend, this also guarantees a further 80 Category A tickets per match, via the organising committee, which will go on sale in December: priority will go to athlete and family requirements, only the surplus, if any, going on public sale.
The OFI have also secured 965 for their own use, and again will prioritise athlete and family needs before deciding if any will go on general sale. All qualified athletes are also entitled to two tickets per round, but restrictions and demand in Tokyo will limit this to one per round in swimming.
Keane added: “I also think the system is in a better place now, to ensure they want to be an Olympian, enjoy the experience, and make it feel like the best thing that’s happened. But you also don’t want them to be defined by that. It’s supporting them in other ways too.”
As well as meeting the demand the tickets, the OFI faces plenty of other challenges, including preparing the team for the often crippling heat and humidity of the Japanese summer (the 1964 Games in Tokyo were staged in October).
“From an athlete point of view, the best ability will be adaptability,” said OFI deputy Chef de Mission, Gavin Noble, a 2012 Olympian in the triathlon, who also outlined new fitness-to-compete guidelines for all those selected.
Current OFI income remains healthy. In the four-year cycle up to the 2016 Games, the then OCI drew in some €750,000 in sponsorship; the OFI is expected to receive €1.2 million in the Tokyo cycle, although the Games are expected to cost them some €1.5 million, with confirmation of a 2020 gear and airline sponsor coming next month.
In another new departure, only two OFI board members, Keane and honorary secretary Sarah O’Shea, have been approved to travel to Tokyo. Keane also said that medal targets (Ireland won two medals in Rio) were a matter for Sport Ireland: “When doing up our strategy we did lot of consultation with the national federations, and decided not to set a medal target, but look to improve on each Games. Our understanding is that Sport Ireland will be setting their own medal targets, up to 2028.
“We’re hoping the [number of team members travelling] could go as high as 100, with the women’s hockey now included, and depending if the men’s rugby Sevens make it, but for now we’re probably looking at around 80.”
