The interior of BC Place Stadium. The 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee will release up to 20,000 tickets to nightly Victory Ceremonies at BC Place at affordable prices. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Nearly 20,000 tickets to the ceremonies will be sold at $22, while an additional10,000 tickets will be provided free of charge through a program to be disclosed in 2009.
“We want to ensure that the maximum number of tickets is available to the public for every event,” said Caley Denton, VANOC vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing, in a recent news release.
“While previous Games have established event public ticketing thresholds at 10 per cent or less, we’ve worked hard to increase the 2010 Winter Games event threshold for public tickets to a minimum of 30 per cent.”
Overall, 70 per cent of the 1.6 million tickets for ceremonies and events will be available to the general public while 30 per cent will be reserved for the athletes and their families, National Olympic Committees, International Sport Federations, media and broadcasters, and worldwide and domestic sponsors. These groups are commonly referred to as the Olympic Family.
More than half of all tickets will be priced at $100 or less and about 400,000 at $25 or less. Demand for tickets is expected to be extremely high.
Tickets will be available for request during the first phase of sales starting on October 3rd and will continue for six weeks. Canadian residents can submit applications online or by phone before November 7th. However, non-Canadian residents will need to purchase tickets from authorized sales agents, such as JetSetSports for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
As has been done at previous Olympics, in some cases lotteries will be held to distribute tickets fairly to Olympic Games events where demand for tickets exceeds supply.
For those fans who miss out on the first phase of ticket sales, there will be unsold tickets released Phase 2 and 3 at later dates.
For the first time in Olympics history, the 2010 Games will have the Opening, Closing, and Victory Ceremonies at a single location — BC Place. The Victory Ceremonies will run nightly from February 13th to February 26th at BC Place, and from February 13th to 27th at the Whistler Celebration Plaza.
“With just weeks remaining before tickets go on sale, now is the time for Canadians to get ready to create their own unforgettable Olympic experience in 2010,” said Dave Cobb, executive vice president of VANOC,
“We are particularly excited to whet everyone’s appetite with new details on the nightly Victory Ceremonies at BC Place.”
The Nightly Victory Ceremonies will pay tribute to the athletes as the International Olympic Committee recognizes the day’s winners in the presence of the Olympic Flame.
Following the medal presentations, the athletes’ triumphs will be honoured with a celebration concert featuring renowned entertainers, according to the release.
For further details on tickets and prices, please call the Vancouver 2010 Ticketing Call Centre at 1-800-TICKETS (1-800-842-5387) after September 15 or refer to the link: www.vancouver2010.com .
