Nearly 400,000 tickets still available for Torino Games

Nearly 400,000 tickets still available for Torino Games{mosimage}TURIN, Italy (AP) _ Nearly 400,000 tickets are still available for next month’s Torino Winter Olympics. The organizing committee said Thursday that 630,000 of 1 million tickets have been sold, and the target of 830,000 would be met.

“We are certain we will surpass our goal,” committee CEO Cesare Vaciago said.

Tickets are still available for every sport at the Feb. 10-26 Games. For figure skating, the only remaining tickets cost more than €100 (U.S. $120). Seats for preliminary round hockey games can be had for €40 (U.S. $48).

An extra 30,000 tickets will be given to Torino area schoolchildren at a price of €3 (U.S. $3.60) each.

Most of the tickets – 380,000 – have been sold outside Italy, with the United States leading the way, followed by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, Russia and the Czech Republic.
Dutch fans purchased most of the speedskating tickets, Norwegians and Germans bought most of the tickets for biathlon and Americans will dominate the crowd for short track, luge and curling.

New ticket packages that include admission to the downtown Medals Plaza will go on sale soon.

About 6,000 tickets remain for the Feb. 10 opening ceremony, most of them costing between €250 (U.S. $300) and €500 (U.S $600). About 10,000 tickets are unsold for the Feb. 26 closing ceremony.

Tickets are available from the Torino organizing committee and national Olympic committees.

-Associated Press