Ticket sales on target: Games boss
Date: 13/03/06
The Commonwealth Games would meet ticket sales targets despite hundreds of thousands of seats remaining unsold two days before the opening ceremony, according to Games chief executive John Harnden.
An additional 22,287 tickets went on sale at midday on Monday to some events that were previously sold out, such as swimming, diving and gymnastics.
It is on top of some 5,000 tickets still available for the opening ceremony, 26,300 for the closing ceremony and about 200,000 for athletics events.
While he would not reveal figures, Mr Harnden said revenue for the games was in “great shape”.
“I believe we will meet our revenue targets across the board and the government’s position in terms of the budget has been very well-documented and that at this point in time we’re working within that,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
Mr Harnden continues to be upbeat about ticket sales, with a record number of tickets to Games events already sold.
“We have had an enormous take up, we have sold over 1.3 million tickets and I just think that’s phenomenal,” he said.
“It’s a record by a long long way from any Commonwealth Games, and indeed where you are looking at something like athletics, where you have sold over half a million tickets, with the exception of the Sydney Olympics I am not aware of too many other events that have sold nearly half a million tickets in recent history.”
Monday’s tickets were released following finalisation of venue plans such as seating and scoreboard positions and camera platforms.
Between 100 and 200 tickets for each session were made available via the internet, over the phone and at Ticketmaster.
Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 sold approximately 900,000 tickets.
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