[Locked In]

2010 Games tickets all snapped up

Canwest News Service
March 10, 2009 7:02 PM

OTTAWA — Every event at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games is sold out, more than 11 months before the opening ceremony, said John Furlong, chief executive officer for the Vancouver Organizing Committee.

“We know people are coming and they’re coming from every village and town you can imagine,’’ Furlong said during a speech to the Canadian Club of Ottawa at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier on Tuesday.

“Even in the downswing of the economy, which has clearly happened in the last couple of months, our merchandise program is doing extremely well. Canadians are celebrating this. They’re looking forward to it and supporting it.”

When tickets went on sale last October, they brought in $345 million in five weeks. In Salt Lake City in 2002, tickets were available for nine weeks, bringing in only $78 million. As expected, hockey was the most sought-after event in Vancouver.

“When we put the tickets out there for the public, we were astonished at the interest,” Furlong said. “We took 144,000 orders for 4,000 gold-medal hockey tickets we had for sale.”

Thanks to government and corporate support, the Vancouver organizing committee now has 98 per cent of funds needed to stage the games, he says.

Construction is finished on athletic facilities, but the organizing committee is concerned there may not be enough hotel accommodation for the anticipated number of visitors.

“We have the unique challenge of having far too many people wanting to come than we have accommodation for. We are now developing a strategy so that every head has a pillow in Vancouver.”

Furlong’s speech was interrupted for nearly 30 seconds by one protester chanting, “No Olympics on native stolen land.”
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Source: Vancouver Sun