Glasgow 2014: Thousands to miss out on seeing Bolt

TENS of thousands of people who applied for tickets to the men’s 100-metre final and the track cycling events during next year’s Commonwealth Games will be left disappointed after organisers revealed they had been swamped by the demand.

Over 100,000 applications were made in the hope of seeing Usain Bolt. Picture: Getty

Spectators hoping to witness sporting history in Glasgow will find out from today if their applications for tickets to next year’s Games were successful.

With more than two million requests for seats at the spectacle, officials behind the Games have been delighted with the scale of interest. Demand has by far exceeded supply, meaning that some hopeful spectators will miss out come next summer.

Flagship events such as the men’s 100-metre final at Hampden Park on 28 July have proved the greatest draw of them all, with in excess of 100,000 applications made in the hope of seeing Jamaican track star Usain Bolt run in a stadium with a capacity of just over 50,000.

Another hugely popular event is the track cycling, being held over four days at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome from 24 July.

Organisers said they had received 25 times more requests from sports followers than the number of tickets available.

In all, during the four-week allotted window, there were 2.3 million requests received for up to one million tickets.

With the deadline for applications having drawn to a close earlier this month, sports fans have been forced to bide their time before learning if they will be able to watch some of the 17 sports on offer first hand.

From this afternoon, organisers will start to contact people who applied to watch some of the world-class competition, breaking either good news or bad.

Ty Speer, the deputy chief executive of Glasgow 2014, said the interest shown during the initial ticketing phase was a sign that attendances would be “tremendous”.

He added: “I’d also like to remind everyone who has applied for the exclusive on-sale period they will have first opportunity on all remaining tickets.”

Successful applicants are asked to ensure they have enough money in their nominated accounts to cover the costs of the tickets. Glasgow 2014 will begin taking payments from 1 October. For all failed payments, a second attempt will be made and should payment fail again, people will be contacted via e-mail asking them to call the contact centre.

Around 4,500 athletes are due to take part in Glasgow 2014, which is being held between 23 July and 3 August.