Embarrassing Commonwealth Games ticket blunder

Oops: The Comm Games ticketing error. Photo / Supplied

Gold Coast Commonwealth Games boss Peter Beattie has urged critics to put an embarrassing ticket bungle into perspective.

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) revealed on Tuesday thousands of opening ceremony tickets had been issued with an incorrect date.

About 14,000 tickets were printed saying Thursday, April 4, when April 4 is actually a Wednesday.

While the tickets remain valid despite the error, GOLDOC chairman Peter Beattie conceded it was a regrettable mistake.

"Of course we're embarrassed by it but, realistically, we've got 90 per cent of our tickets out, this is an event where there's 1.2 million tickets," Mr Beattie told AAP.

"The facts of life are you will have hiccups in events that are this big.

"Will it affect anybody? Not really. The debate about it is good; the publicity about it is good because everyone will understand.

"Is it embarrassing? Yeah, but look, it's not the end of the world."

The blunder was compounded when Ticketek announced it had to re-issue hundreds of tickets to weightlifting, table tennis and the triathlons which were printed with an incorrect session time.

Village Roadshow executive general manager Bikash Randhawa, whose company operates the Oxenford Studios facility which will host boxing, squash and table tennis events, said the ticketing errors raised questions about organisation of the Games.

"Well how does this happen for such a premium event?" Mr Randhawa wrote on Twitter. "I guess we should just suck it up as @SmartState1 (Mr Beattie) says. Deal with it folks as you will with traffic and everything else, what was that comment you can put lipstick on a pig it will still be a pig."

Mr Beattie dismissed any fears about the organisation of the Games, insisting GOLDOC was ready to host the event in two months' time.

"The truth is there are people who want to take a cheap shot at the Games because we're the biggest event in town," he said.

"You can see the Games are well organised. Of course we've got challenges ... there was a mistake, everyone involved is mortified but it's not the end of the world."