World Cup Ticket Warning

[RobinC]

For any of you who were planning to go to the World Cup Shooting event at the Woolwich Olympic Range in April please be warned that contrary to what it says on the event website it is effectively NON SPECTATOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The site is under high security now and you will be turned away!

World Cups are normally free and open to who ever wishes to go but LOCOG have decided this will be ticket only and there are only 50 a day and don't bother to ask, they are going to dignitaries, etc, and have already been allocated.
This has been kept well quiet and many of us have been working for some time to get tickets, the NSRA, British Shooting, are playing pass the hot potatoe and not acting, politicians don't care, we only found out the truth from foreign teams who had been warned that family and friends travelling with the team should get the team to apply for tickets! Yesterday I got a reply from the sports minister which stated, it was restricted and it was nothing to do with him, it was LOCOG!

LOCOG just refer to it as a "test event" and say it is only to test the site not security or spectator management so they are not budgeting or providing that other than for competitors and officials!! It a WORLD CUP for FS!
So we have an Olympic range which will be pulled down after the Olympics, we are'nt allowed to hold our national Championships on it even though its finished and un used when they are scheduled, and now we can't even go and watch the best in the World on our range in the only World Cup this country will be permitted to hold (probably for ever).
Makes you Proud to be British!
Robin

[The Doctor]

I shall reserve my comments for fear that the swear filter will melt.

Utterly ridiculous - I wonder if they have ever tried to get a variety of people intoxicated in a place where they make beer??

Numptees

Lee

[Bing!]

Good grief!
I don't know wether to laugh or cry.


Bing!

[anightrains]

this give us a very fair idea of how important air-gunners,and shooters in general are to the British government,
we now live in a full on nanny state, the sad thing is it can only get worse
brian
PS its the tax payers money they have spent building it in the first place.

[RobinC]

I think its worse than a nanny state, none of us could see the sense or logic of moving the venue which was to be permanant at Bisley as quoted in the Olympic bid to Woolwich, a military site, temporary facilities, and pulled down afterwards.
Am I being paranoid in now seeing it was a plan from day one, on a military site they can use all sorts of special powers to keep people out! So we have a range that will be pulled down, tickets for the Olympic shooting were nearly non existant, no use for domestic championships even though its unused, no access for the World Cup, those taking pictures get police attention, that's not a nanny state, thats getting close to a third world dicatator police state! No, of course not I'm just getting paranoid after a year of letter writing to MP's and Ministers and having just recieved the first reply this week!
Robin

[AD_K]

Could you be wrong? My misses and I have tickets and we arent Royalty etc....

Adam

[Rutty]

Could you be wrong? My misses and I have tickets and we arent Royalty etc....

Could you confirm that your tickets are for the World Cup at Woolwich in April- May and if so:

Pray tell how and from where you obtained them?



Rutty

[AD_K]

Sure. I'll check in the morning. I believe the are through Surrey Small Bore Rifle Association. SCSBRA.....

[RobinC]

If these are WORLD CUP tickets you are about to be inundated as the NSRA, BS don't have any!!!!

The Minister of Sport and Locog say they are not available for general supply!!! So I suspect what you have are Olympic shooting tickets not World Cup.

If they are WC, please get me two for Thursday the 19th!!! Robin

[RobinC]

The Official ISSF Word Cup site has recently been updated and now states,

"No public tickets are on sale for this event. Entry is limited to athlete friends and family and members of BS."

So thats final, we are not permitted, my MP and the Sports Minister have gone strangely quiet.

Robin

[Bing!]

Do we know if any of our sporting representatives have asked why? Isn't it time they had a tantrum or something, anything?

[RobinC]

I Know Rutty has spoken to the NSRA Vice chairman, even though they are weak its not the shooting bodies its LOCOG, the shooting bodies are just being weak and ineffective. I'm disgusted that the Sports Minister does not over rule LOGOG, he is their customer on our behalf.
But then look at the responce on here, a couple of comments, I also put it on Pilkguns TargetTalk in the hope of making it an international issue, but basically target shooting in this country is now a very tiny minority, the majority of shooters are game or plinkers, the MP's and Minister probably did not get a half a dozen complaints.
Its frustrating and infuriating.
Robin

[Bing!]

I fear that as the target shooting fraternity ages and retires/pass away the lack of youth coming through into what is a very focused discipline will be another nail in our own coffin. Apathy on our behalf and the unwillingness to move forward, although zero funding at just about every level doesn't help, will be the hammer knocking the last few nails in.
Bisley numbers down, what about average age? What percentage of the top Bisley shooters are even eligable to shoot at an ISSF comp due to ancient "aint broke why fix it" Kit. The social side of shooting is great and competition tough but we need to get a professional outlook on it, to get funding we need to become competitive at European level and World level. To do this we need world class facilities and thats where we fall down. Again.
However, keep an eye out for the new indoor 50M facility at Peterborough. Serious funding applications going on over the last few years may be paying off, possibility of all electronic targets too. Olympic legacy you ask, no. We were offered the finals hall, the bloody great multicoloured "tent" about 3 times the size of the range its self. But hey ho.

Ok, rant and tangential subject rant over and done with.

Bing!