Opening Day of Football Action
The opening day action of London 2012 didn’t disappoint in terms of excitement! There were ticketing issues, flag controversies, and some of the nicest volunteers/public officials I have ever come in to contact with.
To start, CoSport is in the doghouse already and its only day one. After giving a two week window of time for tickets to arrive, my family waited for our tickets and are still waiting….even after having attended the first set of women’s soccer games for Group G (USA, France, Colombia, and North Korea aka the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). CoSport was late getting tickets out causing those who were leaving the country early to explore before the games, including my family, to miss the delivery of the tickets. Other families were lucky and got them the day before leaving, however, we have yet to see ours. After numerous hours on the phone, representatives hanging up on us and those at the will call office trying to help, we have begun to lose faith that we will ever see those tickets.
Thankfully, Scotland is home to some of the nicest people I have ever met. While trying to ask a police officer how to get to will call, he kindly gave me two tickets. This was even after I gave him a couple blank stares after having no clue what he was saying due to his incredibly thick accent. Then as I got to will call and met up with my other family members, I came to find out that while CoSport was being anything less than friendly (needless to say definitely not helpful) some other man was kind enough to give my father 4 tickets that he had so my family could get in to the game without having to buy more tickets. Again, some of the nicest people I have ever met live in Scotland.
Moving on to the games. Watching the United States play France was an awesome game!! Even more awesome to hear…the numerous Scots chanting “USA” throughout the game. After the United States’ game was over and they had secured a win, I switched into my Colombia fan mode to watch a former college teammate play in her first Olympic game! Little did I know, on its way was a MAJOR mishap by those running the soccer games that evening. After the North Korean’s starting lineup was announced, no North Korean players exited on to the pitch. After a few minutes of utter confusion the announcers tried announcing the starting line up again to no avail. After some more time passed, the crowd definitely started to get antsy but of course the typical stadium wave started to entertain the fans for a solid 10 minutes.
Luckily my inside connection, aka college teammate, and others around me started to notice in pictures that the South Korean flag was displayed during the North Korean starting line up. A MAJOR no no. Needless to say you could feel the tension in the air and fans began to wonder after 45 minutes had passed if any game was going to be played. Players were pulled from the field and an announcer came on to say there was a delay due to some “behind the scenes issues.” Finally after an hour the teams came out to warm up for another 10 minutes and then it was game time! Unfortunately, Colombia lost but the atmosphere of both games was awesome (minus the fact that thousands left after the USA vs. France game) not that I’m complaining because that meant better seats for me!
Finally, one confusing part was the lack of merchandising inside the stadium. You could not find a single piece of merchandise for the Olympics or any country specific gear inside the stadium minus a program. Attendees had to visit a white tent outside the stadium prior to or after the game they attended. With the delay of the second game, I’m sure the merchandise tent did not see many visitors. Another interesting point was the fact that they had one merchandise tent while fans were required to enter by certain entrances, causing some, including my family, to never pass the merchandise tent at all.
Day one has proven to be filled with unexpected twists and turns, I can only imagine what day two and London will bring!
Posted by olympian on July 27, 2012 | Filed under: Olympics.
