Olympics 2012 tickets top £2,000
The best seats at the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony will be twice the price of other global sporting events – but organisers say this will keep ticket costs down for sports fans.
Tickets for the London 2012 Olympics will start at £20 and go up to £725 for the showpiece 100m athletics final, organisers announced today.
The highest priced ticket will be for the opening ceremony, where some fans will fork out £2,012 for the best seats in the Olympic Stadium.
Organisers insist that 90 per cent of the tickets will cost £100 or less, with two-thirds of tickets £50 or less and 2.5 million costing £20 or less.
Cut-price promotion
Approximately 1.3 million tickets will come under a promotion which aims to get both young and old into the stands.
For 200 sessions, those who are under 16 at the start of the Games will pay their age in pounds, while people who are 60 or older on the same date will pay a flat £16.
There will also be a Ticketshare scheme in which thousands of schoolchildren will get tickets.
Tickets need to be affordable and accessible to as many people as possible. Lord Coe
The organisers, who need to get 25 per cent of revenue from ticket sales, said that by charging a high fee for the key contests and ceremonies they can afford to supply much cheaper tickets for the same events.
Full stadia
London 2012 chairman Lord Coe said that the aim is to have full stadia and to make millions of tickets affordable and accessible over a wide range of prices.
He said: “We have three clear principles for our ticketing strategy – tickets need to be affordable and accessible to as many people as possible. Tickets are an important revenue stream for us to fund the Games and our ticketing plans have the clear aim of filling our venues to the rafters.
“When we won the right to stage the Games, we made a promise to inspire young people to choose sport and our ticket prices will get as many young people as possible to the Games.”
More tickets
The number of tickets for the 26 Olympic sports has been increased – from eight million to 8.8 million, London 2012 also confirmed today.
The price for two million tickets for the Paralympics will be announced at a later date.
About 75 per cent of this total will be available to the public, and will go on sale in March. The rest are split between interested parties who back or take part in the Games.
This includes 13 per cent to the National Olympic Committees, 10 per cent to sponsors, one per cent to sports federations and a similar number are prestige tickets that have been set aside for special package deals.
Children’s tickets
The government’s tickets are to be spread in batches around secondary schools in the UK, allowing one teacher and five children to get to the Games.
Around 50,000 tickets have gone to London Mayor Boris Johnson to allow around one in eight children in London to go the Games without paying.
Mr Johnson said: “Having invested so much, I want Londoners to have a real sense that these are their Games too.
“So it is right that, through the schemes aimed at youngsters, we can acknowledge their support by rewarding thousands of London kids with the unique opportunity to be part of this amazing sporting spectacle.”
Having invested so much, I want Londoners to have a real sense that these are their Games too. London Mayor Boris Johnson
Each sport session will have tickets at different prices. Key factors will be whether the event is a heat, preliminary or a final and whether it is a popular sport.
While the tickets for popular events like the mens’ 100 metre final cost hundreds of pounds, sports fans can go and see a star name like Usain Bolt in an earlier round at a cheaper price.
Bargains
Other bargains include sailing – Britain’s second most successful sport in Beijing – with tickets ranging from £20 to £55 at Weymouth and Portland. Fans can also watch events like the marathon, triathlon and road cycling free of charge from the roadside.
Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said he was confident that London 2012 will have packed stadiums and venues with a range of tickets on offer. “People of all ages and budgets will have the chance to attend London 2012,” he insisted.
So far 1.7 million have signed up to receive information about tickets. Tickets go on sale in March and London 2012 organisers are urging those interested in attending to sign up at www.tickets.london2012.com.