SPONSORS of the London Olympics have refused to reveal how many and what kind of tickets they have been handed, citing commercial confidentiality.


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“It has been mutually agreed with all sponsors that the terms and conditions of their contracts are commercially confidential,” said a spokesperson for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog).

Locog acknowledges that some 700,000 tickets, or 8% of the total, have been set aside for sponsors like BP, Coca Cola and Lloyds TSB, but it won’t say to which events that overall allocation applies
Reporters from Sky News tried to find out the make-up of ticket allocations for the 2012 Games, but were stymied as Freedom of Information requests only apply to government departments.

You might have thought that Locog, wholly owned by the government, would come under FOI, but it doesn’t as, technically, it is a private company.

Like Locog, the corporations involved are also not exactly forthcoming with ticket allocation information.

“It is not our role to disclose the actual number of tickets obtained,” was the line from BP, while Lloyds TSB, another ‘private’ company owned by the government, argued that “details are confidential”.

That reluctance to pony up the information adds to the impression that Mr and Mrs Suit and their prawn sandwiches will be in the best seats for the best events, where they are likely to be sitting alongside the thousands of other corporate guests already promised top tickets by the government.