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High hopes SOCOG looks for good ticket sales by year's end
Posted: Monday November 29, 1999 07:13 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Sydney Olympics organizers said Monday they hope to exceed expectations by selling more than US$130 million worth of tickets to Australians by the end of the year. Sandy Hollway, chief executive of the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said more than 435,000 tickets worth about US$20 million had been purchased by Australians in the delayed second-round offer. Over half of the 102,243 people who applied for second-round tickets got everything they wanted and more than 75,000 received most of what they asked for, he said. SOCOG has already made about US$95 million from the 1.5 million tickets sold in the first-round ballot and expects to get anothe US$16 million from the 200,000 top-class seats that were added to the public offer after originally being quarantined for premium packages. SOCOG had budgeted to raise US$145 million to US$165 million in domestic ticket sales by the time the Games begin next September, with US$115 million in the bank by the end of the year. Hollway said that as the latter figure was now likely to top US$130 million, it showed the public was able to distinguish between the ticketing fiasco which has dogged SOCOG for the last two months, and the Games themselves. "It's probably had little if any impact on people's interest in getting to the Games and getting hold of the tickets early," he said. Including international sales, SOCOG expects to raise a record US$395 million from tickets. The New South Wales parliamentary committee is expected to table its report into the ticketing saga in the state's Legislative Council on Tuesday. It is understood that the review will not name the individuals or companies who purchased premium tickets from SOCOG at large markups, although it could call on Olympics Minister Michael Knight to release their names. Knight has refused to do so in the past. Two months ago, Olympic organizers admitted that the Australian public stood almost no chance of getting tickets for some events at the Games because premium seats were held back from sale.
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