The last batch of tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympics went on sale Saturday, a week after a computer glitch forced postponement.
The Vancouver2010.com virtual waiting room meant to regulate demand didn't work Nov. 7, so only a few hundred tickets of the 100,000 inventory were sold online or by phone.
A VANOC news release Saturday morning claimed the wait time was comparable to the previous Canadian sale dates on Dec. 12 and June 6. The Vancouver 2010 communications department gave regular updates on ticket availability via Twitter and the ticketing site.
However, prospective ticket buyers reported via Twitter that they were stuck in the virtual waiting room for several hours.
"Just unhappiness here," wrote Twitter-user Leesitek. "After I was unable to checkout with my snowboarding tickets ~2h ago nothing but waiting room again. Consolation prize: finally got in again and was able to get 3 different victory ceremonies."
A few successful buyers said they found tickets for marquee events like the men's hockey gold medal game and opening ceremony by opening dozens of web browsers.
Wrote Jlin: "People got in by brute forcing the system. I opened 60+ windows and I got in within 5 minutes. Someone needs to investigate how this waiting room system actually works. There's no tracking cookie of any kind no waiting queue."
"First time I got in about 10:30 a.m., I was booted after putting gold medal men's curling in my shopping cart," wrote AdamDlin. "Picked up snowboarding and opening ceremony tickets, but by the time I got it it's virtually prelim hockey/curling and victory (ceremonies)."
By early evening, the only tickets remaining were for the closing ceremony, nightly medals ceremonies, women's hockey, women's curling and men's hockey games featuring longshots like Norway, Switzerland and Latvia.
Those who bought tickets for the nightly medals ceremonies did so without knowing who will play the concerts. VANOC has not concluded negotiations. The lineup was supposed to be announced earlier this month.
