London 2012 Ticket Sales Begin Alongside Countdown Clock

Tickets have gone on sale to the general public hoping to attend the 2012 London Olympics, today, March 15.

6.6 million tickets are available via the London 2012 website and will remain so for a period of six-weeks, within which organisers have gained that all applications will be treated equally.

Prices to the general public range from £20.12 to £2,012 and oversubscribed events will be decided by a ballot.

Additional to online applications, interested fans can apply using a paper form obtainable from branches of Lloyds TSB in England, Bank of Scotland in Scotland or libraries in Northern Ireland between now and the April 25 deadline.

Although several events will be free to attend, such as the marathon, and 2.5 million tickets will be available for £20 and under, half a billion pounds is forecast to be raised from the sales.

The remaining 2.2 million tickets from the overall allocation of 8.8 million will be split, with roughly half issued to National Olympic Committees (NOC) of each country, and the other half split between sponsors, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), guests and hospitality partners.

The event organisers are widening access to corporate hospitality tickets for the first time to tap into the market for companies and wealthy individuals as, the only way for individuals and non-sponsors to get guaranteed tickets is through the official hospitality programs.

Bloomberg have reported that London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG), is counting on selling packages worth as much as £4,500 (US$7,280) a person to companies in London’s financial district and the wealthy at the same time the U.K. government is implementing the deepest spending cuts since World War II.

The committee is breaking with Olympic tradition because the market for corporate hospitality is “enormous,” Paul Deighton, chief executive officer of the London organizing committee said in an interview. “That’s why we decided it was better to make it an official program,” Deighton added. “It’s better than corporate hospitality cropping up unofficially.”

In other news, On Monday night, March 14, a giant clock counting down the days until the start of the Games was unveiled in Trafalgar Square.

Lord Coe, the chairman of London 2012, said: “If you look at the way we have put the price points together I think we’ve done that in a really smart way. I think those prices are affordable.

“Yes, the big ticket events are always going to be the big ticket events, but there are plenty of opportunities to see the big stars at the lower price points.”