First Minister Alex Salmond has been urged to provide a guarantee that sports fans will be able to buy tickets for the Commonwealth Games by Monday at the latest.
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson made the call yesterday after organisers were forced to close the Ticketmaster website and phone line after the system crashed.
People using a premium-rate booking phone number were charged, even when they got the engaged tone. It has since been announced that those callers will be refunded.
Ticketmaster, which describes itself as the market leader in online ticket purchasing in the UK, has said it is undertaking an “urgent review”.
Ms Davidson claimed the competition in Glasgow was being undermined by a “shambolic ticketing fiasco”.
Glasgow 2014 chief executive David Grevemberg has already apologised.
During first minister’s question time at Holyrood, Ms Davidson acknowledged that organisers had generally done well preparing for the event. She added: “We need to find out what went wrong, fix it and reassure the families who are still waiting for tickets that the system is back on track. Can the first minister assure us that his cabinet secretary for sport will have the issue fixed by the weekend?
Mr Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, said the problem should be seen in wider context.
He said the games were on time, facilities were complete, Glasgow’s east end had been transformed and a million tickets have already been sold.
“I think even the people who have been frustrated will recognise that there is an overwhelming demand. The organising committee is doing absolutely everything it can to make sure that every venue is full in the Commonwealth Games and it will sort out the problems and people will get that opportunity to buy tickets,” Mr Salmond said.
It was also revealed that fans will have to wait an extra two weeks for the chance to buy tickets to the Rugby World Cup, also due to failings with the Ticketmaster site. The tickets will not be available until May 29.