Olympic events in Beijing all sold out

[July 28, 2008]  BEIJING (AP) -- All tickets to Olympic events in Beijing have been sold, organizers said Monday, putting the games on course to be the first to sell out.

"Tickets to watch competitive events of the 2008 Games in Olympic venues in Beijing are now sold out," said a brief notice on the Beijing Games' Web site.

"BOCOG fully appreciates the consideration offered by supporters for Beijing Olympic ticket sales," it said, identifying the organizing committee by its initials.

With enthusiasm among home fans running at fever pitch, the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Games are expected to be played out in front of full venues, although tickets that went to sponsors and the national Olympic committees of participating countries may not all get used. In all, 6.8 million Olympic tickets have been available for domestic and foreign sales.

The release of a final batch of 250,000 tickets sparked chaotic scenes in Beijing on Friday, as a crowd of 30,000 swarmed a Beijing ticketing center. Police shoved and kicked them, and used metal barricades to prevent a stampede among people who had stood in line for up to two days.

Another 570,000 tickets went on sale for preliminary round soccer matches in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao, where some tickets remained available. There were no reports of major problems at the other sites.

Li Dan, an official with the organizers' ticketing center, said organizers expected those matches to eventually sell out also.

"We're still counting the number of remaining tickets, and it's hard to say when they'll be sold out," Li said.

The high demand has put massive pressure on the ticketing system and organizers had to suspend one round of domestic sales in November after overwhelming demand crashed the computerized ticketing system, prompting a switch to a lottery system.

Ticket sales for past Olympics varied widely. The 2004 Athens Olympics sold only about two-thirds of 5.3 million tickets available, and there were many empty seats.

The most expensive tickets in Beijing are for the Aug. 8 opening ceremony, which cost $645. Organizers said 58 percent of all tickets would cost $12.90 or less, in line with efforts to make them affordable to average Chinese citizens.

[Associated Press]

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