Winter Paralympics tickets go on sale May 6

From The Vancouver Sun:

VANCOUVER, Canada - If you were one of thousands of people left out in the cold when 2010 Olympic tickets were snapped up last year, you may want to try your hand at the Paralympics.

On Wednesday, May 6, the Vancouver Organizing Committee will put the first block of tickets on sale to Canadians. And unlike the much-criticized lottery system that left many people without a single ticket to the Olympics, Vanoc is selling its Paralympic tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We’re going on sale earlier than the majority of organizing committees, mostly because we’ve seen the demand and questions from Canadians who want to plan their experience,” said Caley Denton, Vanoc’s vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing. “We’ve seen really strong public interest for the sport events we’ve had earlier this year.”

All totaled, Vanoc says it has 250,000 tickets available for 64 medal events at the Paralympic Games, which start March 12, 2010. The vast majority will go on sale online at vancouver2010.com Wednesday, with a small portion held back for venue space planning purposes, Denton said.

And unlike their pricier cousins, Paralympic tickets will be vastly more affordable. Denton said the highest price anyone will pay will be $175, for a top-grade entry to the Opening Ceremony at BC Place. More than 70 per cent of the competition tickets will sell for less than $20. Even a top-flight ticket to the gold medal sledge hockey event – where Canada is expected to defend its crown – will cost $50.

Tickets will start at $15, for events such as cross-country, biathlon and downhill.

By comparison, Vanoc sold top Olympic tickets for gold medal hockey for $775 and Opening Ceremony tickets went for $1,180. However, scalpers are now asking for multiples of those prices.

In an effort to get more people to buy in bulk, Vanoc has also created a special group pricing structure of $10 per ticket for order of 20 tickets or more. It will sell tickets to schools for $5 and is also offering a transportation grant program for qualified schools, Denton said.

“I expect to sell out a number of events,” Denton said. “Selling out overall is not my expectation until the end.”

Vanoc’s aggressive efforts to prevent ticket scalping for Olympic tickets also applies for the Paralympics. Denton said the organizing committee will set up an official resale site later this year, and is determined to try and prevent organized commercial scalping.

“ We’re doing what we’ve done all along,” he said. “If people are purchasing tickets from anyone else, they’re taking a risk.”

Denton said Vanoc will keep selling Paralympic tickets for about three weeks and then close the window in early June to prepare for the second round of Olympic tickets, which go on sale June 6.

The sales program is for Canadian residents only; international sales are controlled by each country’s Paralympic Committee and will likely start within a couple of months, Denton said.

One event people won’t be able to buy tickets for yet is the Paralympic Closing Ceremony. Denton said that’s because the event will likely be held in Whistler and configuration of the Whistler Celebration Plaza have not yet been worked out.

When it bid for the Games, Vanoc promised it would give 50,000 Olympic and Paralympic tickets to charities for free distribution. Denton said Vanoc isn’t releasing details of the charity program until later this year but expects less than half of the tickets will be used for Paralympic events.

Denton said prices will include a “fulfillment fee” of $4 that covers the cost of public transportation included in the tickets. However, plans are still being devised for public transport to Paralympic events in Whistler.

“We’re still working through the details, but having said that we’re not expecting to have the same bus network and the fee we had for transport for the Olympic Games,” Denton said. “What we mostly expect to happen is we will have places people can drive to and park and we would bus people from there.”

People who have already bought Olympic tickets won’t have to pay a delivery fee. New buyers will pay $10 for orders less than $100, and $20 for over $100.