GOING FOR GOLD

LET’S get realistic about this Commonwealth Games ticketing fiasco — so intoned organising committee chairman Peter Beattie to media yesterday.

He urged no one to get “too overreactive”. Fair call. Promise. Here we go then.

This isn’t the first blunder or controversy to hit the Games and it won’t be the last.

With an event of this size, it has to be expected but just as we celebrate the wins, the balls-ups are going to get a mention.

The timing of this PR disaster — 14,000 tickets to the showpiece sent out with the wrong day on them — could have come at a better time. Mr Beattie fronted media on it at a Griffith University function room during a break in a Games workshop for all the event sponsors who were gathered to hear how to maximise their involvement.

As Mr Beattie noted to media, the upshot of this ticketing misprint is nothing more than a bit of embarrassment.

Were tickets still valid? Yes. Would it affect the opening ceremony? No. Will they reprint any? Nah, it’s a novelty item, stick it on eBay after. It was a Beattie masterclass in apology, deflection, minimisation and moving on to what’s really important — hosting a top Games we can all be proud of.

That’s fair enough but further dramas will get harder to be waived away.