There'll be over 7 million tickets available for the Beijing
Olympics. The news was divulged by the head of the Beijing
Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) who also
revealed that the majority of tickets would be
inexpensive.
"Excluding those reserved for the 'Olympic family', which includes
sponsors, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sports
federation officials over 7 million tickets will be sold to the
general public," said BOCOG chief Liu Qi.
"We will start to sell tickets to contracted corporate clients in
September and tickets will go on sale to the public in the first
half of next year," he added.
The Olympic Games are the world's most popular sporting event and
many local citizens were concerned that they would not to be able
to afford to get access to the competitions.
But Liu said the organizers had taken into consideration "the
situation in China" when setting the prices. "Except for the
opening and closing ceremonies and a few popular events the
majority of tickets will be very, very cheap," said Liu. "We hope
that all Chinese have a chance to come and watch the Games."
Liu said the BOCOG would unveil ticket prices for the Games
following final approval from the IOC.
In China people can purchase tickets through an official ticketing
agent which has yet to be named, Liu said. All others would require
to purchase tickets through their corresponding national Olympic
committees.
(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2006)