The organizers of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone have apologized for the online ticket sale chaos and promised to improve their ticketing system.
Many fans were left angered and indignant at the difficulty in rising prices of tickets and purchasing because of the new dynamic pricing system.
On 15 September, tickets for the British GP went on general sale, but the online system was unable to cope with demand, and customers held in queues for hours on end for tickets.
Many of the people found the price of the tickets increased by the time they reached the stage of finally purchasing them.
Jon Fisher from Calne, a fan of F1 since the 1980s, was trying to buy tickets for £419 in Wiltshire. He held in a queue for eight hours, and when he was finally able to purchase the ticket, the price had risen to £489.
Jon said It feels like a way for them to make more money, and it’s not about the fan experience. It’s milking the customer, and it is profiteering from fans who don’t have any choice to watch F1 anywhere else in this country, Jon said.
Silverstone’s managing director Stuart Pringle expressed his regret at what had happened and his determination not to repeat it.
Stuart said I am extremely sorry for the frustration, upset, disappointment, and anger this has caused. We are going to do a root and branch review on all of this, and we will consider anything and everything. We have learned a lot of lessons, and we can’t have a repeat of this year, Stuart said.
Stuart argued that the dynamic pricing had been used for the first time at a British sporting event, which was a different issue.
The traditional model of Silverstone has been to offer the cheapest prices for early purchases and then increase the prices over months as available tickets decrease in number.
Stuart said a similar process was built into the system this year, but it failed due to unawareness of the scale of demand. It’s wonderful we have had such a demand for tickets but it is utterly regrettable that our fans have been subject to these challenges, he said. Moreover, he said, We have to sort it out, and we will sort it out.
