Highlights
– Completion of Olympic venues is ahead of schedule
– Ticketing has posed one of the biggest problems in the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
The infrastructure for the 2008 Beijing Olympics looks set to be some of the most impressive structures built for the Games. In addition to newly built venues for sporting events, Beijing will see the addition of several new subway lines, a third airport terminal and a 26-mile light rail system.
However, the ticketing system for the Games has not been pronounced as successful. After a computer program crashed in October 2007, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) set up a revised system in December 2007. A total of 1.8 million tickets will be distributed under the revised system and nearly 1.5 million have already been purchased in an earlier round of ticket sales.
Overall, completion of the Olympic venues and ticketing will likely be finished ahead of schedule barring any additional computer difficulties.
Ticketing Debacle
The second round of ticket sales for mainland China residents began on October 30, 2007, on a first-come first-served basis. However, within hours millions of eager fans caused the computer program to overload and crash. An estimated 200,000 applications were sent to the website every sixty seconds and thousands of people lined outside of banks that were also selling tickets. As a result of the system failure, the director of ticketing was fired and the BOCOG decided to use the lottery system, which was also used during the first round of ticket sales in April 2007.
More than seven million tickets will be sold for the Beijing Olympics, with an additional two million set aside for the International Olympic Committee, sponsors, dignitaries and television broadcasters. The revised round of ticketing began on December 10, 2007 and will end on December 30th, limiting people to only eight tickets instead of the previous limit of 50.
Even though tickets can be tracked to the original buyer, the high demand has created a black market, as opportunist sell their tickets for several times the face value on the Internet, creating an additional problem for the BOCOG.
Infrastructure Displacement
Although ticketing has been a major concern for the BOCOG, the Beijing Olympic infrastructure has been completed without incident in the months leading up to the Opening Ceremonies. All but one of the 37 venues is projected to be finished before the end of 2007. The remaining building is the 91,000 seat “Bird’s Nest” stadium that will be finished in March 2008 (Previous Report).
Closed-cell polyurethane foam insulation will be used to insulate the stadium that will host the Opening Ceremony on August 8, 2008. The insulating technology will help meet strict energy efficiency and environmental guidelines, alleviating some concerns about pollution as a result of the increased construction.
However, the infrastructure has not been without controversy. Numerous human rights activists are using the upcoming Olympics to highlight their concerns with the Chinese government and one group in particular has focused on the plight of poor residents in Beijing. The Center on Housing Rights and Evictions estimated that 15,000 people are evicted from their houses every day, often with little compensation. Over 1.2 million people have already been forced out of their homes and another 300,000 are expected to leave before the Games begin.
Optimistic Expectation
While there have been a few glitches, the BOCOG has ensured that infrastructure will be the most successful part of the 29th Olympic Games. Previously, host countries have attempted to achieve a debt-free Olympics but China has spared little expense in building up its capital in anticipation of the event. An estimated US$40 billion will be spent on infrastructure alone, compared to US$15 billion in Athens.
The BOCOG claims they have learned from the ticketing overload and will set up measures to ensure they can accommodate the 1.3 billion Chinese fans in the future. However, people will continue to sell tickets on the black market, most likely avoiding the government-controlled Internet.
