April 2007, China to use RFID Technology for Olympics

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games™ will be the second major sporting event to use RFID technology. Seven million tickets for sale will be embedded with RFID chips to help combating fake tickets, therefore, strengthening security.

In addition, the electronic ticketing can eliminate the manual identification process, ultimately minimizing errors and speeding audience entry into venues.
Purchase of tickets is required to provide personal information such as name, address, nationality, and ID number or passport number. Furthermore, each ticket for the opening and closing ceremonies will carry the digital picture and ID information of the valid ticket

During the 2006 FIFA WorldCup Germany™ the technology was used for the first time at such a large sporting event. Beside the above mentioned advantages, there are still drawbacks:

• Data Protection, especially in Europe
• Cost, RFID Technology is still relatively expensive compared to i.e. the barcode technology
• Lack of Frequency standard (For UHF frequency there is no worldwide defined standard yet, which can complicate things for event organisers)
• RFID Chip could be easily damage  i.e. if one puts a RFID ticket on a fridge with a magnet or with a tack on a pin board.

Sources:
SDA Asia Magazine, China Deploys RFID in Olympics Tickets (April 17, 2007) and http://www.rfidnews.org/