2012 Olympic ticket prices announced

This article titled “2012 Olympic ticket prices announced” was written by Mark Tran, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 15th October 2010 07.47 UTC

The organisers of the London 2012 Olympics today revealed the full range of ticket prices for the event, with the most expensive – £2,012 – for the opening ceremony.

The lowest price for the same event will be £20.12. Seats priced at £1,600, £995 and £150 will also be available. The closing ceremony will command a highest price of £1,500, going down to £20.12, with £995, £655 and £150 tickets also on sale.

The London 2012 chairman, Lord Coe, described the policy behind the pricing structure as an effort to make the tickets “affordable and accessible to as many people as possible”.

The organisers – who need to get 25% of revenue from ticket sales – said a high charge for the key contests and ceremonies would allow them to offer cheaper tickets for the same events.

The number of tickets for the 26 Olympic sports has increased from 8m to 8.8m, London 2012 also confirmed. About 75% of this total will be available to the public, and will go on sale in March.

The prices of 2 million tickets for the Paralympics will be announced at a later date.

Some local authorities have criticised organisers for “locking out” poorer children from east London.

“Olympic organisers have had five years to plan a ticket allocation which would permit the children of the host boroughs to attend the Games taking place on their own doorsteps,” Chris Roberts, the leader of Greenwich council, said.

“Instead, seven out of eight schoolchildren will be denied that chance. It’s like someone pitching up to have a party in your backyard and being told our kids can’t go.”

Roberts said the local boroughs had offered to buy some 500,000 tickets directly from the organisers, but were told this was not possible.

The complaints from Greenwich council came despite assurances from the London mayor, Boris Johnson.

“Having invested so much, I also want Londoners to have a real sense that these are their games too,” he said.

“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.”

The organisers have already said they may no longer be able to honour a pledge to price some tickets at £15 because the lowest-demand sports of baseball and softball are no longer on the Olympic programme.

The International Olympic Committee voted in 2005 to remove both sports from the programme for London 2012.

The London 2012 chief executive, Paul Deighton, has previously said organisers want to ensure that those on lower incomes will be able to enjoy the games.

The Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, rejected criticism of overpriced tickets by pointing out that one-third were priced at £20 or under.

About 1.3m tickets will be provided under a promotion for young and old spectators. Anyone who is 16 or under at the start of the Games, on 27 July 2012, will pay their age in pounds. If they are 60 or older by the same date, they pay a flat £16.

There will also be a Ticketshare scheme in which thousands of schoolchildren will get tickets. A levy on the price of prestige hospitality packages will allow 100,000 tickets to be donated to schools in London and around the UK via the London 2012 “Get Set” education network and the Olympic and Paralympic-style schools sports competition.

Organisers expect full stadia for events where there will be high demand for tickets. They have set prices low for less popular sports in an effort to attract as many spectators as possible.

Prized tickets for the 100m final will come in at five levels, ranging from £50 up to £725 – the highest for any of the 2012 Olympic sports – which will secure a spot along the 100m straight.

Tickets for the football, taking place at a range of venues including the City of Coventry Stadium, Hampden Park, the Millennium Stadium, Old Trafford, St James’ Park and Wembley, will start at £20 for the preliminaries.

Fans will have to pay between £39 and £125 for the semi-finals, rising to £40 to £185 for the men’s final and £30-£125 for the women’s final, with both games taking place at Wembley.

Tennis fans can get outer court tickets at Wimbledon for the preliminaries and quarter-finals for £20. The centre court finals will cost from £65 to £225.

So far 1.7m people have signed up to London 2012’s ticket information site. People need to submit an application for tickets when sales are launched, even if they have registered their details with London 2012 and have a ticketing account.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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