In an effort to thwart any terrorist attacks or embarrassing public protests, tickets to the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies will have unrivaled security elements built right into them – including photos of the ticketholders, their passport numbers and contact details, Canadian Press reports.
Such measures at the 91,000-seat National Stadium, nicknamed “The Nest” for obvious reasons (photo), could cause long delays, according to Canpress, and that will not easily be tolerated by many of the VIPs holding tickets to the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies and Aug. 24 closing fête. The top tickets to those events list at $720 … so how are authorities going to keep track of tickets that are assigned at the last minute to important guests, or that are given or resold to others, or scalped for five times the price?
Stopping scalpers is part of the idea of course. But if a national delegation or company or simply a wealthy person impressing friends brings in a group of 10 people, how can everyone be sure they have the right high-tech entry pass? This measure is meant to stop opportunistic resellers, activists from obtaining tickets so they can unfurl pro-Tibet or other banners, and to try and keep genuine terrorist out of the opening and closing festivities. But its actual effect may be to create gads of irate rich people who hate standing in lines.
Such measures at the 91,000-seat National Stadium, nicknamed “The Nest” for obvious reasons (photo), could cause long delays, according to Canpress, and that will not easily be tolerated by many of the VIPs holding tickets to the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies and Aug. 24 closing fête. The top tickets to those events list at $720 … so how are authorities going to keep track of tickets that are assigned at the last minute to important guests, or that are given or resold to others, or scalped for five times the price?
Stopping scalpers is part of the idea of course. But if a national delegation or company or simply a wealthy person impressing friends brings in a group of 10 people, how can everyone be sure they have the right high-tech entry pass? This measure is meant to stop opportunistic resellers, activists from obtaining tickets so they can unfurl pro-Tibet or other banners, and to try and keep genuine terrorist out of the opening and closing festivities. But its actual effect may be to create gads of irate rich people who hate standing in lines.
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