The last people that should suffer from the poor ticket sales at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, are the athletes and the Brazillian public.
We have now merged with #FillTheSeats!
UPDATE 12/09/16: TARGET $300,000 REACHED! Now CLOSED. Thank you for your support. Now watch the seats get filled!
UPDATE 08/09/16: Mars UK and HRH Prince Harry have now pledged and are endorsing the #FillTheSeats campaign! We are now at a total of $230,000 when combining offline donations and both crowdfund pots!
UPDATE 02/09/16: With the support of Allianz (3000 seats), Sainsburys (500 seats) and of course all of you, we have now raised $150,000 for #FillTheSeats!
Half way towards our revised goal! Please continue to help us change the games?
UPDATE 30/08/16: Jack and Greg announced the IPC's involvement on the BBC this morning!
Full video of Jack and Paralympians on The Victoria Derbyshire show online HERE!
American donors may prefer to pledge to our partner campaign at #FillTheSeats on Generosity.com
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Four years of hard work for the athletic preparation, and usually months of individual and group fundraising to set up a trip of a lifetime, is being undermined by money. If you haven't heard, only 12% of the tickets have been sold and therefore the funding which usually supports the travel of the competing nations has been delayed. Additionally the TV and press coverage are being scaled back, which is bound to lessen the spectacle, as well as perhaps even compromise the experience of some of the athletes.
We are delighted to now be an official partner of the #FillTheSeats campaign run by Greg Nugent in association with the IPC and their official charity The Agitos Foundation:(https://www.paralympic.org/agitos-foundation)
All money raised here will be fed into the #FillTheSeats movement which is about to rock the world!
£7 Million was the value of the delayed payments to the teams and this figure has inspired our target total.
#FillTheSeats is being made possible by the IPC, Agitos and PEOPLE POWER!
If the world wants to buy them, we're helping to put a system together to deliver!
We can't be alone in wanting to do everything we can to stop some of the best athletes in the world competing in empty venues?!
(P.S. This is not an 'all or nothing' crowd fund!)
- Main Tweet: https://twitter.com/chews_health/status/766766915175972864
- Times article here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fans-set-up-crowdfunding-page-to-rescue-paralympics-nhfvvr66x
- As heard on BBC World Service and soon BBC 5 Live
So might we:
Fill the venues.
Contribute to the athletes' experience.
Offer opportunities for underprivileged locals to attend a games that they've funded.
Ease social tensions?
Surely we can turn this around?!
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Here's the latest from the BBC on the issue:
Rio Paralympics 2016: Games to go ahead with major budget cuts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/37135083
A slice of the above article:
'What's being cut?
■ Downsizing of Rio 2016's workforce for the Paralympics
■ Changes to the transport services for athletes and their teams
■ The closure of a number of venue media centres
■ Moving events to other venues to enable Deodoro Park to be dismantled, allowing the other venues to have dedicated transport hubs'