Hundreds of thousands of Olympic tickets still unsold
Half a million Olympic football tickets are to be withdrawn from sale as an extra 200,000 tickets for other sports are to be made available online during the next ten days running up to the Games.
London 2012 organisers admit that, with hundreds of thousands of football tickets still unsold, capacity at venues will be reduced by closing tiers of stadiums, or whole sections of some grounds. Even after the reductions 200,000 football tickets will remain on sale and organisers say they will make a further 150,000 tickets available to school children through their Ticketshare scheme.
“Football tickets at the Games are always the challenge” Lord Coe
Matches are due to take place in six locations: the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff; City of Coventry Stadium; Old Trafford in Manchester; St James’ Park in Newcastle; Hampden Park in Glasgow; Wembley Stadium in London.
London 2012 chairman Lord Coe said: “We’ve sold more football tickets than we’ve sold anything else … we are not in bad shape on tickets but football tickets at a Games are always the challenge.”
Commenting on the news, Liberal Democrat party President Tim Farron tweeted: “having heard that we have 200k unsold Olympic tickets I think they should be given free to servicemen and their families”.
Lord Coe confirmed today that at least 37,000 tickets had been sold for the very first event of the Games – the women’s football match between Great Britain (pictured) and New Zealand – which will take place at the Millennium Stadium on Wednesday 25 July. However he said this compared favourably with the women’s FA Cup final this year for which around 5,000 tickets were sold.
Non-football tickets
London organisers say that there are still 50,000 non-football tickets available for purchase at the moment. Following the return of unsold tickets from Olympic committees around the world, an additional 200,000 will go on sale shortly.
Sports with tickets available include athletics, hockey and beach volleyball. For those with the deepest pockets, higher priced tickets are still on sale for both the opening and closing ceremonies.