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Whistler 2010 ceremonies ticket details expected this fall

About 150,000 tickets to Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic sporting events and ceremonies, as well as “many thousands” of tickets to nightly “victory celebrations” will go on sale next weekend, but tickets to victory celebrations in Whistler won’t be among them.

While Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic organizers (VANOC) have decided to make the medals ceremonies at the Whistler Celebration Plaza ticketed events, they haven’t yet worked out the details, Caley Denton, VANOC vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing, said on Friday (May 29).

“Our team has been flipping on and off and working on getting it all nailed down, and until we do that we won’t release those tickets. I imagine that won’t be until the fall,” Denton said during a media conference call.

Tickets to the Vancouver victory celebrations will cost $22, and the first sale of those tickets will take place on Saturday (June 6), the same day that Phase II of Canadian ticket sales for sporting events and the opening and closing ceremonies occurs. While this won’t be the last chance for Canadians to purchase tickets, Denton warned that that number of tickets available this fall will be quite limited.

“This is a major release of tickets before the 2010 Winter Games, and is the best remaining opportunity for Canadian Olympic fans to get their hands on tickets,” he said.

Whereas the first phase of ticket sales saw 120 of the 170 sporting events go to a lottery, this phase of ticket sales will be more of a straight sale, with one twist: Those logging on to www.vancouver2010.com on Saturday just after 10 a.m. to purchase tickets will be placed in a “virtual waiting room” off of the VANOC site, then randomly selected for admission to the ticketing site. The waiting room is meant to ensure that the Vancouver 2010 site doesn’t crash because of the expected high volume of traffic.

“People need to be patient. We expect there will be high demand on Saturday,” Denton said.

While tickets are available to all events — including “hundreds” to the gold-medal men’s hockey game and 5,000 each to the opening and closing ceremonies — purchasers will be limited to four events per order, and in some cases will be limited to four tickets per event.

Denton advised those with existing ticket accounts with VANOC to go on the site beforehand and ensure that their logins and passwords still work. Newcomers who wish to open new accounts before Saturday may also do so by visiting the site, he said.

As before, Visa is the only online purchasing option — but non-Visa-cardholders have the option of purchasing tickets offline using cheques or money orders, Denton said.

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