Late surge for 2012 tickets as deadline looms

London 2012 organisers reported a late surge of applications for tickets ahead of a deadline on Tuesday with strong demand for less glamorous sports like archery as well as big name Olympic events.The six-week window for British residents to apply for 6.6 million tickets to
 their home Games, billed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, was due to close at 2259 GMT.
LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton told Reuters in an interview that demand was along the lines expected as organisers sought to raise around 400 million pounds ($658.5 million) from ticket sales.
"The first thing we should say is that the system has worked like clockwork, he said, without revealing any specific figures.
"It's probably the biggest ticketing exercise known to mankind - 6.6 million tickets over 654 sessions with four or five price points - and it's working and has had absolutely no crashes.
"This last weekend we've seen a real surge in demand - it's amazing what a deadline does - though we thought that would happen after people have sat down with their families and thought about what they want.
"We've seen really strong demand for the ceremonies, athletics, swimming, rowing and track cycling, which is what we expected," added Deighton.
"But there has also been heavy demand for finals for events with particular fan bases, things like canoe slalom, archery and badminton have been high. Rhythmic gymnastics is very popular and I think a lot of gymnastics and ballet clubs have said 'let's take the class and go and see world class performers as might not get another chance.'"
The archery competition will be held at the historic Lord's cricket ground, an iconic venue in itself.

MEDIA CRITICISM
Applications for over-subscribed events will go into a ballot and, with no guidelines available about how many tickets are available in each price band, applying is something of a balancing act and has drawn some media criticism.
People know that the chance of securing the cheapest ticket for the 100 metres final is slim but are wary of hedging their bets by committing to multiple applications, and higher price bands, just in case they all come off and they are suddenly hit with a bill of hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
"We looked at several alternatives and determined that this was the fairest and most open way," Deighton said.
"I don't think people have gone in for massive over-subscription, I think people are too sensible to box themselves into a corner where they will end up with masses of tickets they don't want and can't afford."
Successful applicants will have payment taken from their credit cards in May or June but will not be able to sell unwanted tickets back to the organisers until next year.
As with all major events, ticket touts or scalpers will be watching proceedings with interest while recognised agencies are campaigning to be allowed to sell on unwanted tickets legally.
"We've focused on that issue very hard," Deighton said. "We would encourage everyone in the UK and overseas to get tickets from only authorized sources (via the national Olympic committees outside Britain).
"We have a very close alliance with the police who have a special group targeting ticket fraud but whenever there is this much interest in tickets you know the touts will be out there trying to exploit it."