Tickets to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics go on sale in exactly one year, and organizers say they are trying to keep the event affordable.
"When we bid for the 2010 Games, we made a promise. And that promise was that anyone who wanted to go to the games would be able to go, that no one would be left out, that we would make it possible," John Furlong, CEO of VANOC, said at a news conference Thursday in Vancouver.
"Today, we are delivering on that promise. We are delivering a ticket program that is accessible and affordable."
There will be 50,000 free tickets and half the tickets will be $100 or less, he said.
About 100,000 tickets will be available for $25 or less.
"It would be easy to think it's just another ticket to another sports event, but it's not," Furlong said. "It's the entire Olympic experience, an experience that will not come our way again for many, many, many years."
For a premium event like the opening and closing ceremonies, prices will range from $175 to $1,100, said Dave Cobb, VANOC's executive vice-president of revenue, marketing and communications.
The must-see events for Canadians are the gold medal games in men's and women's hockey. The prices reflect that. Tickets for the men's event will start at $350 and peak at $775.
Part of the pricing strategy could be tied to revenue goals. VANOC has budgeted on $232 million in ticket revenue, but that is based on 90 per cent of the tickets being sold.
In addition, Furlong noted that having fans in the stands also makes for a much better experience for the athletes.
Scalpers
The Vancouver Olympic Committee is concerned that some of the tickets will be snatched up by scalpers, who could then pawn them off to customers at inflated prices.
So, it's carefully tracking the unauthorized sale of event tickets. One business that recently began advertising tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies has already been forced to shut down. It was selling tickets for as much as $2,400. It wasn't just the high prices that raised eyebrows. There was another problem: VANOC hasn't yet released a single ticket for sale.
VANOC wants to cut down on scalping by creating a process that will allow only one application per person. They'll also analyze credit card and address information so that one person or group doesn't monopolize seats.
VANOC's Caley Denton told Â鶹´«Ã½ in Vancouver that they "will try to work and shut down people who are trying to sell their tickets for a profit."
He said the practice of outside vendors selling tickets at inflated prices "isn't within the spirit of our program and is actually against the rules of purchasing a ticket."
One more way VANOC hopes tickets go to Olympic fans and not scalpers is through a lottery system for events most in demand.
Availability
About 1.6 million tickets are available. About 30 per cent of all tickets are reserved for members of the "Olympic family."
For the Canadian public, people must apply starting in October 2008.
Tickets will be distributed by lottery, so there's no guarantee of getting the events one seeks.
In the second phase in early 2009, unsold tickets will be made available.
Seat assignment will take place from mid-2009 and lasting until year's end. This is the last phase because venue configurations will be finalized in this period.
The 2010 Winter Games taken place in Vancouver and Whistler from Feb. 12 to 28, 2010, while the Paralympic Games will run from March 12, to 21, 2010.
Cobb warned people against buying from unofficial vendors or outright scalpers.
"We're going to spend a lot of time educating potential purchasers of tickets about the dangers of buying from anyone other than an authorized agent of ours," he said.
"The last thing we would want to see happen is if someone buys an invalid ticket -- a counterfeit ticket, a ticket that has had its barcode cancelled because it's been stolen -- and those people arrive at a venue at Vancouver/Whistler 2010 and they don't get in."
Inevitably there will be counterfeit tickets out there, and "if people want assurances that they're going to go to a venue and have their ticket accepted, they need to buy it from us," Cobb said.
With reports from CTV's British Columbia
