Organisers of the Sydney Olympic Games will not be able to invalidate legitimate games tickets that are resold on the Internet, according to the office of Olympics Minister Michael Knight.
This is despite warnings from the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) last week that tickets bought from unauthorised agents via overseas Web sites could be cancelled.
'Not so' says the minister's office: "If people have got their hands on tickets and they're going to sell them then it's impossible to put restrictions on it," a spokesperson for Michael Knight told ZDNet Australia today.
As with all tickets bought from scalpers, "It's a case of buyer beware," the spokesperson stressed. However, as long as the ticket is "kosher" an individual cannot be prevented from claiming their stipulated seat at an Olympics event, he confirmed.
"If they've actually got the tickets then they can do what they like," he added.
Renewed antagonism about Olympic ticketing has followed a spate of ticket sales on overseas Web sites.
Last week ZDNet Australia received an e-mail from an individual selling 200 Olympic tickets on his US site. "I am selling all 200 of my Olympics tickets since I won't be able to make it," read the e-mail -- attached was a link to a US Web site dedicated to the trade of Olympics seats.
"We reserve the right to cancel tickets if we can identify someone who is at the source of unauthorised tickets that have been sold," SOCOG Ticketing Communications Manager John O'Neill told ZDNet Australia at the time.
"If we cancel a ticket we can issue a voucher that will take precedence over that ticket improperly traded," O'Neill said. " So you could turn up at games time and find that someone else has a voucher that takes precedence over the ticket you have purchased through an unofficial agent."
Various watchdog organisations refused to say whether or not SOCOG could make such a move and directed ZDNet Australia's questions to SOCOG itself.
SOCOG did not return calls.
One official organisation, which requested anonymity said: "SOCOG's behaviour indicates they are a rule unto themselves."
June 27, 2000
