Ticket Buyers Crash Olympic Computers

Filed in archive Olympics on October 30, 2007

Heading to the Olympics? Trying to get tickets to your favorite events? Don't worry, you are not alone.

Tickets to the 2008 beijing olympics went on sale today. But, due to an overwhelming demand, the computer system crashed. 1.85 million tickets became available on a first-come, first-serve basis and, according to an article on MSNBC, 9,000 were sold before the crash. Organizers expect over 7 million tickets to be sold.

As organization as the Beijing Olympic Committee has been, it's hard to believe they didn't see this coming.

More than eight hours after ticket sales began, the online ticketing site had a note saying the system was busy and to check back later. The telephone ticket hot line rang busy, as it had all day.

"The speed of the ticketing system is relatively slow," the Beijing Olympics organizing committee (BOCOG) said in an announcement on its Web site. "It is temporarily unavailable ... those who want to buy tickets through Bank of China branches or the telephone hot line need to try again later."

The announcement did not mention the online ticketing site. However, a ticketing department official said in a statement last week that a main computer system processed all transactions.

Organizers were working to fix the problem, the BOCOG Web site said. It asked ticket buyers to be patient and to avoid constantly refreshing the online ticketing site.

It was not clear how many tickets were successfully purchased Tuesday, when 1.85 million tickets became available on a first-come, first-served basis. BOCOG said 9,000 were sold after two hours, almost all of them through the ticketing Web site and in person at Bank of China branches.

BOCOG's media department director, Shao Shiwei, said the ticketing department was refusing to comment on the situation.