An Olympic sized headache

We got our requests for Olympic tickets in just before the ballot *phew*. Like many others I’m sure, we ended up applying for much more than we intended, hoping that we’d get at least one event. The only issue will come if we get all of the tickets we’ve applied for – that’s a lot of cash to stump up!

It’s got to be done though. Events like this are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I want my children to experience this first hand, not through the glare of the TV screen, and it’s the same for me.

We don’t find out for a while whether we’ve qualified for tickets yet so I’ve put it to the back of my head, but I was reminded the other day during a conversation with a friend who had just returned from a popular theme park that cost her a small fortune in drinks and snacks. We don’t often do theme parks and the one we do ‘do’ we have a season ticket to so we mostly pop in for a couple of hours and move on before our pockets are emptied.

Going to the Olympics will be different though. We’re talking long days, long journeys and three children. The idea alone of attempting to pack a picnic that covers at least 2 meals and snacks for that many hungry mouths is enough to give me a hernia, which means we’re looking at throwing ourselves to the mercy event organisers and their food concessions – cue grey hairs and shaking hands.

On average I predict we’d be spending around £60 a day on food and snacks – and that’s a conservative estimate based largely on taking in unhealthily large quantities of fast food and drink. If we wanted to eat properly we’re looking at something closer to the £100 mark, per day, and we might be there for four days! That’s scary stuff and it doesn’t even include travel and other incidentals to get us to and fro the venues!

So I’m making a heartfelt plea to the organisers. Please consider the plight of ordinary families when you’re pricing up your food concession pitches. Understand that we will pay the price for you selling these spaces at a premium and really a soggy burger in a bun isn’t worth £6 of anyone’s cash is it now?

Friday, 20th May 2011

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