OLYMPIC TICKETS

Perhaps the most controversial and emotive issue the organising committee faces between now and the opening ceremony is ticketing.

About nine million tickets for the 26 Olympic sports will go on sale in 2011 and it will probably prove impossible to please everyone.

The key issues are price and availability. London won its bid on a promise of minimum ticket prices of around £15, but the economic realities of funding the Games means that figure has already been abandoned as organisers seek to meet their target of £2 billion in commercial revenue.

With higher prices certain the organising committee has to balance affordability with accessibility. Tickets have to be available to people from across the country and they have to be within the reach of ordinary families, particularly given the huge taxpayer investment in the project.

The question of sponsor and VIP access to events is also sensitive and London can ill-afford to allow the huge banks of empty seats left by sponsors in Beijing to be repeated.

Locog are already talking to the IOC about ways in which they can quickly fill areas of seating that have been left vacant, including bussing in schoolchildren to the Olympic Park in order to use them to fill in when required.

SOURCE FROM WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK