Petro-Canada to provide tickets for athletes' families.

12/4/2009

For many families of Olympic athletes, getting tickets to see their loved ones compete is a challenge that can seem almost as difficult as qualifying for the Olympics themselves. But this year, in Canada at least, the challenge might prove a little bit easier.

Petro-Canada, an official sponsor of the Vancouver Olympics, is providing 500 families of Canadian athletes with tickets and accommodation to the Olympics. Judy Hoy, proud parent of Canadian snowboard cross athlete Drew Neilson, will be treated to five days in Vancouver thanks to the program.

According to Hoy, this program is not only beneficial for families, but for the athletes as well. They don’t have to worry, she says, about whether their family will be able to get tickets and find a place to stay. Such challenges are only compounded when, in an event like figure skating, athletes qualify shortly before the games, often leaving families to scramble for tickets.

This program undertaken by Petro-Canada represents a significant step towards securing and guaranteeing tickets for athletes and their families. Not only does this demonstrate a gesture of goodwill, but it provides access to the games to those who are an integral part of the Olympic world. Without the love, dedication, and support of family, athletes would be hard pressed to make it all the way to the pinnacle of sporting events.

It seems only logical, then, since families play such a key role in the entire Olympic process, that the United States would try and provide families with tickets as well. After all, our official USOC sponsors have the largest market share of tickets outside of Canada.

While it might seem logical, but few things in the world of Olympic ticketing are.

Thus far, the USOC has not announced any formal plans to provide athlete families with tickets. And certainly there is no plan in place like the one in Canada. In the US, families are encouraged to get tickets from the official sponsor, CoSport, and parent company Jet Set. Unfortunately, as anyone with an eye towards Olympic ticketing knows, tickets and accommodation packages sold through Jet Set often prove to be far too expensive for many families.

Instead of teaming up with sponsors to try and provide tickets for families, Jet Set recently announced a partnership with Bombardier to sell exclusive packages including tickets to high-demand events, capped off with a few hundred hours of private jet usage. But who can blame them? The cheapest package starts at around $120,000. That would be quite the haul on one sale.

It seems that Jet Set, which reportedly earned $70 million in Beijing, and whose founder and CEO, Sead Dizdarevic, paid himself $2 million per year as of 2003, cannot find pockets deep enough to try and put together a program that sees some families at the games. It is ironic, really. Without the athletes and their families, there would be no Olympics.

Sead Dizdarevic has Olympic connections that most can only dream of. If anyone would be in a position to guarantee tickets to families, it would be Sead. He consistently provides the highest of the high-end accommodation for clients, Olympic officials and various VIPs.

So why are there no ticket programs for athletes’ families? The answer is simple; for Sead Dizdarevic and his companies, it is all about the bottom line. It is simply not worth their time and money to ensure that when our US athletes look up and smile after competing in sport’s most vaunted of competitions, they will be looked back upon by their loved ones.