Cleveland family pays $2500 for Commonwealth Games opening ceremony seats with view blocked
AN angry family who spent $2500 on premium tickets to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games opening ceremony are still waiting for answers after their views were almost totally blocked by production equipment and their requests to move were rejected.
Confidential
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AN angry Redland family who spent $2500 on premium tickets to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games opening ceremony are still waiting for answers after their views were almost totally blocked by production equipment.
Jane and Sean Carroll, of Cleveland, bought the $500-apiece tickets for what they thought would be a “once in a lifetime” experience for them and their three teenage daughters.
But when they were shown to their seats, they could barely see the ceremony for the wall of equipment directly in front of them.
Mrs Carroll said she was speaking out now after failing to get a response from organisers, and Games chairman Peter Beattie called Australians complaining about the shambolic closing ceremony “a pack of whingers”.
“We’d bought the best tickets and couldn’t see anything,” Mrs Carroll told The Courier-Mail.
“When we got there and were shown to our seats, we had all this equipment including a massive camera boom in front of us. We were a long way away and seated down really low.
“We’d paid for premium seats and what we got was bloody unbelievable.”
Mrs Carroll said she asked officials three times if the family could be moved without success.
“We could see empty seats and would have been happy to split up if it had allowed us to move and actually see the ceremony,” she said.
“I didn’t want to be a killjoy or spoilsport so we didn’t kick up a big fuss but in hindsight we probably should have. We just ended up walking out early.”
Mrs Carroll said two weeks after the opening ceremony, she was still waiting for answers from organisers.
“All I’ve got from them is that they’ve created a case. Nobody is apologising, let alone offering to give us a refund,” she said.
“God forbid if they’d have offered us closing ceremony tickets as compensation because that was a complete disaster.”
A GOLDOC spokeswoman said Mrs Carroll had been contacted and would receive a “full response” by next Monday.
Originally published as Cleveland family pays $2500 for Commonwealth Games opening ceremony seats with view blocked
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