The ATHENS 2004 Ticketing Strategy and pricing policy was presented today by ATHOC and approved by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board. The IOC Executive Board is meeting in Mexico City, Mexico, and the ATHOC presentation of the plan was made via video-conference.
The fundamental principles of the ATHENS 2004 Ticketing Program are the following:
The ATHENS 2004 Ticketing Programme has as an objective to make the tickets to Olympic events accessible to all through the use of the most advanced technology. These will ensure fair, effective, reliable and user-friendly sales and ticket distribution methods.
In the ATHENS 2004 Ticketing Programme:
The program has been developed based on the following facts:
17 days of Olympic Games
28 Olympic Sports
37 Competition Venues
5,300,000 tickets available for sale and
€183,000,000 as a ticket sales revenue target for ATHENS 2004
Ticket Sales
The ticket sales process for the public will begin on May 12, 2003 (simultaneously in all countries around the world)
In accordance with the European Community Legislation, all residents of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area ( EEA) have equal rights in purchasing tickets for the Olympic Games.
All EU and EEA residents will be able to order tickets directly from the ATHENS 2004 Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games via the ATHENS 2004 internet site or via the Alpha Bank Sponsor outlet network (in Greece), or through any National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the EU or EEA (except for the Hellenic Olympic Committee), or through the relevant NOC Official Ticket Agent.
Residents outside the EU and the EEA can purchase their tickets from the National Olympic Committee of their country or through the relevant NOC Official Ticket Agent.
In the case(s) where demand exceeds supply of available tickets, a random selection-awarding process will be held through a ticketing-system software. The ticketing system software ensures that the random selection is fair, transparent and reliable.
A similar random selection process, was used during the past 3 Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Salt Lake City 2002) and in other major sporting events such as the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Random selection has proven to be the most objective and fair process that gives equal chances of obtaining tickets to all customers.
Note: The random selection process will be used for the EU and EEA public ticket requests, which will be placed directly to ATHENS 2004 through the ATHENS 2004 internet site or the Alpha Bank network. All National Olympic Committees are allowed to follow their own ticket allocation system according to the number of tickets that they are eligible to purchase.
In April 2003, ATHENS 2004 will distribute, free of charge, the ‘Official Ticket Sales Guide’ that will include the Ticket Order Form, the detailed sport competition schedule, ticket prices and all the necessary information for ticket ordering.
The same information will be also available on the Internet via the ATHENS 2004 web site.
Starting on April 2003 and up until Games-time, the Ticketing Call Center will be in operation for customer service inquires and assistance.
Based on ATHENS 2004 contractual obligations (as stated in the Host City Contract and the Olympic Charter), ATHENS 2004 also sells tickets to Sponsors, National Olympic Committees, International Federations, Broadcast Right Holders and the International Olympic Committee.
Tickets have been set aside for all of the above contractual customer groups. These tickets will be used for their hospitability programs, sponsor distribution and other sales programs.
The above contractual customer groups do not have a right to purchase tickets from the ticket quota which has been held aside for the public alone. Tickets that are returned from the contractual customers will be made available to the public as soon as they are returned.
Ticket Types
There will be three types of tickets:
Ticket Packages, which will be available in a limited number and will include tickets for the most popular sports and in premium seats at the competition venues.
Both the Ticket Combinations as well as the Individual tickets will be sold at ticket face value. The price for the Ticket Packages will be predetermined and will exceed the face value of the tickets that they include. Lastly, if demand exceeds supply of tickets, there will be a random selection process for all three types of the above mentioned tickets.
Prices
The principal objective of the ATHENS 2004 Organising Committee is to give as many people as possible the opportunity to participate in the unique experience of the Olympic Games.
For this reason a wide price range for all Sports and Ceremonies has been established.
This has been based on sport popularity and the phase of the competition (preliminaries, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals).
Out of the 5,300,000 tickets available for sale:
3,600,000 tickets which represent 68% of the total will cost up to € 30
2,900,000 tickets which represent 55% of the total will cost up to €20
2,000,000 tickets which represent 38% of the total will cost €10 or €15
The Sport ticket prices range from €10 to €300
The Ceremony ticket prices range from €50 to €950
The average ATHENS 2004 ticket price is 34% cheaper than the average Sydney ticket price
All tickets for the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games include free transportation cost to and from the Competition Venues via public transport.
For more details contact:
ATHOC
International Media Desk
T: +30 1 2004 002
F: +30 1 2004 003
E: mediadesk@athens2004.gr