Arkansas Based Firm Printing 2012 London Olympic Tickets

While the city of London readies for the mass influx of tourists and athletes set to descend upon its grounds for the 2012 Summer Olympics, an Arkansas based firm has been commissioned with the task of printing the 11 million tickets to the games.

Weldon, Williams, and Lick, a Fort Smith based company, will ship the 11 million tickets, 16-tons of cargo, over 4,500 miles to a UK warehouse for distribution before the Summer Olympics begin.

Each event will have a ticket with a pictogram and color scheme tied to the particular Olympic sport to be attended. The ticket will also be printed with a hologram and barcode.

In an effort to further reduce scalping and counterfeit tickets, the London Olympics will have the name of the individual who purchased the ticket(s) on the stub.

Locog, the organizers of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, came under fire for using the Arkansas based printing company. Residents in London and throughout England protested a company being awarded the 25 million pound contract to a foreign owned entity rather than a locally owned business.

BBC News – London went as far to relate Fort Smith to their readers as the city popularized in the Coen Brothers movie True Grit.

The opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin Friday, July 27 ending August 12.

London won the hosting bid over nine other countries but more prominently over New York, Paris, Moscow, and Madrid.