Glasgow 2014 ticket shambles will drag on for days

Scotland's netball team and mascot Clyde join David Greenberg to promote tickets. Picture: John Devlin

Organisers of Glasgow 2014 said last night they hope to have a better idea “in coming days” of when the ticketing website will be back up and running.

Officials behind the sporting event and the ticketing agent, Ticketmaster, said they were still “urgently reviewing” the performance of the site, which was pulled indefinitely on Tuesday evening amid struggles to cope with the volume of traffic.

Although Ticketmaster said yesterday morning they hoped the site would relaunch “very soon,” it is increasingly unlikely it will go live again in the near future, as the scale of the technical issues becomes clear.

The difficulties with the ticketing system represent a high-profile embarrassment.

An extra 100,000 tickets for a range of events and ceremonies at this summer’s spectacle were released on Monday morning.

Billed as a “final sprint” for the sought-after tickets, it became apparent that the failings made it more akin to a marathon.

Although around 60,000 of the tickets have been sold so far, many sports fans have been unable to select and pay for seats. Some reported waiting for more than 30 hours on the website before their transactions were fully processed. Officials behind the Games instructed Ticketmaster to close the site at 6pm on Tuesday to address technical failings.

With the call centre also closed, those hoping to secure their place at Scotland’s biggest-ever sporting event were left frustrated.

Last night, a Glasgow 2014 spokeswoman said organisers and Ticketmaster were proceeding with the urgent review. She added: “Once this review is complete and any measures have been implemented and tested, we will be in a position in coming days to advise when ticket sales will be back up and running.”

Yesterday afternoon, Ticketmaster said it regretted “any frustration or disruption”.

The firm encountered a torrent of criticism during the London Olympics when its website crashed and, later, users were wrongly informed that their applications for tickets had been successful.

Chris Edmonds, chairman of Ticketmaster UK, said: “We are undertaking an urgent review to enhance the performance of the website and improve the customer experience, and we are confident the ticketing site will reopen very soon.”

First Minister Alex Salmond said he had contacted Glasgow 2014 organisers to urge them to find a way to resolve the technical problems.

David Grevemberg, Chief Executive of Glasgow 2014 said:“We’re pleased to have met with the Cabinet Secretary this morning to give her a full update on the progress being made in getting tickets back on sale to the public. This was a constructive and positive meeting where we outlined the options and testing required to ensure we can put tickets back on sale with confidence.

“Our priority is ensuring the experience of securing tickets for the Commonwealth Games is a positive one for all our customers and we look forward to sharing our plans tomorrow.”