China’s Olympic Ticketing Crash

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games has reportedly replaced the director of its ticketing operations following a massive collapse of the Olympics onsale in October.

Zhu Yan, the new director, declined to tell the Wall Street Journal if his predecessor, Rong Jun, was fired over the problem. Prior to the October 30th crash, the Olympic Web site reported 8 million hits during the first hour of the sale, with more than 200,000 orders received every second, the paper said. Meanwhile, residents could also purchase tickets at the brick & mortar Bank of China branches.

A total of 9,000 tickets were sold but, instead of a second attempt at an online sale, BOCOG was expected to have an old-fashioned lottery drawing December 10th.

On paper, this is a rare crash of a Ticketmaster-designed system. TM partnered with two Chinese companies – China Sports Industry Group (a subsidiary of Beijing CSI Ticketing Development) and Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group – to form Beijing Gehua Ticketmaster Ticketing.

The Gehua Ticketmaster amalgamation unveiled a custom-designed system to handle what was clearly going to be a massive onsale. But the system ultimately gave out under the weight.

"We listened to everyone’s comments [following the crash] and … we want more people to have a chance to attend," Zhu told the WSJ. He expected 1.8 million tickets would be available for the December 10th lottery.

More than 7 million tickets are available for the Summer Games, with about 75 percent reserved for domestic sale, the paper said.