|
|
Monday, October 9
Ticket sales for 2002 Games set for Tuesday
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- More than 1 million tickets for the 2002 Winter
Games will go on sale Tuesday, with tickets to the most popular
sporting events available only as part of packages.
The three-day packages, which give spectators enough time to get
from one Olympic venue to another, make Salt Lake's ticketing
program different from other Olympic Games. So does the full use of
the Internet for processing orders and a 20-percent reserve at each
event for Utah residents, who can buy tickets for nonresidents.
Skiing, hockey, figure skating, ski jumping and snowboarding are
among sports spectators can attend only if they buy one of the 79
different "Olympic Experience" packages.
Prices range up to $1,350 a person for the best seats at several
popular events, including figure skating and either opening or
closing ceremonies.
Packages also run for as little as $155 for a round of men's
bobsled and women's ice hockey and cross-country skiing. Packages
assign spectators two events a day, with a five- or six-hour
interval between events, for three days.
A $20 processing fee will be charged for all Internet or mail
orders, plus Utah's sale tax. The fee will cover the cost of
shipping tickets to buyers by courier in January 2002.
Opinion polls commissioned by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee
found most people would prefer buying tickets in a package for a
variety of events. The survey also found figure skating was by far
the most popular.
SLOC president Mitt Romney was surprised by the finding that
most likely Salt Lake visitors would stay for at least five days of
the games. The next most popular length of stay was for the entire
17 days.
Salt Lake's ticket program will become more complicated for
"over subscribed" events. Tickets will be sold on a first-come,
first-serve basis except for the first two weeks, when all ticket
orders will be treated alike.
A computer will draw a lottery when there are more orders than
tickets for an event, or more prime seating requests than are
available. In other cases, people who order tickets over SLOC's Web
site will be able to immediately find out if their choices are
available.
Officials said 885,000 of the tickets will be earmarked for U.S.
residents. The rest will be reserved for foreigners, matching the
usual mix of visitors at Olympic Games.
Additional tickets are being sold to Olympic sponsors, national
Olympic committees, NBC and other broadcasters and Jet Set Sports _
an Olympic travel agent catering to wealthy people and
corporations. In all, SLOC expects to make $180 million on ticket
sales.
|  | |
|
