Beijing Price Tag Difficult for Olympic Parents

Posted May 8, 2008 at 08:17 AM by Michael J. Sedor

Section: Beijing 2008, Culture/History, Human Interest, Socio-Political, Events, Aquatics, Boxing, Featured Writers, Michael Sedor

While your watching the your favorite athlete at the Beijing Olympics this year the cameras will inevitably flash to his/her nervous parents. Maybe one of them has left their seat out of anxiety, maybe one has their eyes covered, or maybe they’re just sitting there with nervous steely hopeful gazes. You might think about how proud they must be of their child and how much emotional support they have given their star athlete.

Here’s another thing to think about: in a front page Sunday story the Washington Post reported that those parents will have spent a great deal of money getting to China to see their son or daughter. Plane tickets between $2,000 and $3,000. Business class is hovering around $10,000. 11 nights at the Beijing Hilton $9,000. Second tier hotel $800 per night. Third tier hotel $400 per night. USA Swimming is offering a $36,000 two-person parent package while USA Boxing can dole out a $25,000 one.

The Olympic-sized parental angst does not stop at costs. Tickets too are at a demand. As reported yesterday, the third round of Beijing 2008 ticket sales ended with all tickets taken except for a few outside of Beijing soccer matches. Chinese residents lapped up all 700,000 tickets that were on sale. A Beijing 2008 spokeswoman added “Ticket sales are the hottest ever at an Olympics.”

One would naturally assume that each participating athlete would have at least two tickets for their event. That assumption would be optimistic. The Washington Post explained, “A few months ago, when each sport learned what its ticket allotment would be, panic set in. There weren’t enough. Several sports, including boxing, warned parents to be prepared to buy tickets through brokers.” The United States Olympic Committee now believes it may have procured enough tix but it is not 100% sure.

Nevertheless if an athlete’s parents want a good seat they almost certainly will have to go through a broker or through their child’s corporate sponsor. No corporate sponsor? No luck. Donating business have received many of the good seats. A Speedo v.p. explained to the Post that “he is able to use Speedo’s tickets to move parents down from the upper reaches of the pool’s grandstand when their kids are racing.” How generous. But what about the non-Speedo athletes? Well, their parents shouldn’t worry because their child won’t be wearing the Speedo LZR Racer and have little chance to win anyway.

So when you’re watching the Beijing 2008 have some sympathy for the parents on screen. Not only have they worked hard to make their child an Olympian but they’ve also spent a lot of money to see their child realize their dream and share in their glory.