Want to go online to get tickets for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.?
You better get busy. The deadline is today.
According to this story in the Los Angeles Times, the most expensive Opening Ceremony ticket will go for $1,294. The highest-priced admission to the gala figure skating exhibition will cost $650, while the top-end ticket for the men’s gold medal hockey game will cost $930.
Here’s the full story:
By Greg Johnson
(c) 2008, Los Angeles Times=
Olympic mascots Quatchi, Miga and Sumi will enjoy guaranteed
seating when the Olympic torch is lit on Feb. 12, 2010, to start
the Vancouver Winter Games. But humans who hope to be sitting
nearby have until Nov. 7 of this year to request admission tickets
to the Opening Ceremony, the Closing Ceremony and the myriad
athletic competitions sandwiched in between.
Vancouver Games organizers say that 1.6 million tickets will be
sold before the Games begin. Of that total, 70 percent will be sold
to the general public, with the rest going to Olympic-related
entities, including corporate sponsors.
U.S. ticket sales again are being handled by privately held
CoSport. The Far Hills, N.J.-based company also is licensed by the
Vancouver Games Organizing Committee to sell tickets in Australia
and European Union countries. (For a list of ticket agents in other
countries, visit the Vancouver 2010 website.
CoSport won’t be awarding tickets on a first-come, first-serve
basis. That should mean that folks who used their high-speed
Internet hook-ups will have no advantage over a ticket request that
the U.S. Postal Service delivers next week to CoSport’s office.
CoSport is using a random lottery that company President Jean-Paul
Modde characterized during a telephone interview as giving
consumers an equal chance at getting their requested tickets.
Though CoSport expects to sell most of its allotted tickets, stock
that remains unsold will be offered for sale in February or March,
Modde said.
As is Olympics custom, the process of allocating tickets to various
countries remains frustratingly murky. Vancouver organizers won’t
say how many tickets are being allocated to the U.S. market, or how
that number is determined. Modde also declined to say how many
tickets are being sold in this country.
“We’re still negotiating on the last tickets we’re going to get for
this allocation,” Modde said. CoSport might eventually provide
consumers with some idea of how many tickets were available, or
what percentage of requests ultimately gets fulfilled.
Modde also said that the roiled financial markets haven’t seemed to
scare away travelers.
“Demand has been high, in line, if not a little more than, what we
expected,” Modde said. “A large number of requests are coming from
the Northwestern part of the country — Washington state, Oregon —
and I suspect a lot of them will be driving rather than
flying.”
As is the case with most things in life, fans who want to get close
to the action will pay more for a seat than fans who are content
with the nosebleed section. Here’s a look at what the
highest-priced admissions to the most popular events will cost.
Prices are for tickets only, not lodging.
The most expensive Opening Ceremony ticket will go for $1,294. The
highest-priced admission to the gala figure skating exhibition will
cost $650, while the top-end ticket for the men’s gold medal hockey
game will cost $930.
Vancouver organizers allow CoSport to charge a 20 percent
commission based upon a ticket’s face value. That value was set in
September, before the U.S. dollar grew noticeably stronger in
relationship to the Canadian dollar.
