Although hotel rooms are still going for two to three times normal rates, there are still “holes” of 3-4 nights available within commuting distance of the Salt Lake Games. And hundreds of private homes and condominums, some advertising for up to $2,000 a night remain vacant.
Ticket sales are heating up, says Shawn Feldman of Ticket City, an Austin Texas brokerage. Officially the Salt Lake Organizing Committee has about 120,000 tickets left, out of an original 1.65 million seats. But thousands of the most desirable tickets already are in the hands of brokers and others.
The most expensive and hard-to-get tickets are for the gold medal men’s ice hockey game and the women’s figure skating final.
But the biggest surprise is lack of demand for Friday night’s opening ceremonies and the Feb. 24 closing ceremonies. The soft economy and $885 list price could be the reason.
Meanwhile, the most fought-over tickets are free admission to nightly concerts at the Olympic Medals Plaza in downtown Salt Lake. Plaza access is only by free tickets that have been distributed at local outlets.
On Saturday, paramedics in Orem, Utah treated two women who were crushed in a crowd of 500 who waited all night outside a shopping mall for one of the final giveaways.
