London 2012 Olympics: third of latest Games tickets remain unsold

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9290802/London-2012-Olympics-third-of-latest-Games-tickets-remain-unsold.html

By Jacquelin Magnay, Olympics Editor

5:43PM BST 25 May 2012

Of the 928,000 'contingency' tickets released in two tranches to previously disappointed fans, 300,000 are still available three days after being released on general sale.

A further 1.3 million football tickets are also yet to be sold.

The slow sales have been attributed to the frustration of fans dealing with the Ticketmaster website.

On Tuesday, May 29 Locog will release tickets for events they had previously claimed would be free: the Box Hill venue at the road race; Hampton Court for the time-trial; and Henman Hill for the tennis, having previously indicated they would go on sale on Saturday, May 26.

Locog officials confirmed they have just under 300,000 tickets remaining, with other large chunks of tickets - more than 1.3 million for each of the football and the Paralympics still unsold.

The ticket revelations come as Locog has had to update the International Olympic Committee in Quebec on its sales inventory, and is an embarrassing volte face on the previous 'sold out' claims made by organisers.

To date Locog has sold around 4.6 million Olympic tickets out of the total allocation of 6.6 million. The unsold tickets comprise the 300,000, the football tickets and a further two per cent being held back by organisers as they finalise seating plans.

A London 2012 spokesperson put on a positive spin and said: “We are delighted with the sales in the last three weeks. We have delivered on our promise to give those people who missed out last year another opportunity to buy tickets and thousands did.

"With nine weeks to before the Games start, we are in a fantastic position – ahead of where we expected to be when tickets first went on sale in 2011. There are still tickets available, but many sports have limited availability.”

Sports with 'good availability' of tickets: volleyball, football, taekwondo, handball, basketball, boxing, beach volleyball, canoe sprint, table tennis and hockey.

There are, however, very few £20 tickets remaining