A minimum of 30 per cent of tickets for each Olympic event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Games have been set apart for the public. According to the Canadian Press, Vancouver organizers have cut back on the number of high-demand event tickets given out to the Olympic family to make sure at least some “average” Canadians get a spot at events like medal rounds for hockey.
The first phase of tickets sales begin October 3 and will be offered until November 7. Another 10,000 tickets will be given away free in a program to be unveiled next year.
Vancouver 2010 is advising the public to take their time, look at the schedule and consider which events they want to see, because a request for tickets submitted on October 3 will be considered the same as a request given on November 7.
Dave Cobb, executive vice-president of marketing said, “it’s not first-come-first-served, so you can take your time. At the end of the five-week period we’ll look at all the orders. For any events where there have been more orders than there are tickets it will be a lottery system. So it will be random who gets them”.
Cobb said the number of public places reserved at each event is triple than that at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. “It’s an area we feel quite strongly about and we’ve set those lines in the sand now and we’re not moving from them”.
At the Beijing Games “family” members were criticized for letting dozens of seats go unfilled at many of the events. Cobb said, “we know that a ticket to the general public is much higher likelihood of it being used. And all of these groups that get access to these tickets now are sensitive to the empty seats coming out of Beijing”.
People will be notified later this month whether their first choices have been accepted and will have an opportunity to add additional tickets before the end of the year.
The second and third phases of ticket sales will take place in 2009.
VISA is the only payment card accepted, some cheques and money orders will be accepted, and cash will not be accepted as payment for tickets during phase one.
Vancouver 2010 has confirmed that medal presentations will be held indoors at BC Place. Following the presentations there will be a celebration concert featuring renowned entertainers, hosted each night by a different Canadian province or territory.
