Soccer can be a sellout in 2012, says Deighton

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Next year’s Olympic soccer tournaments may well sell out before the Games despite nearly 1.5 million tickets being available at present, London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said on Wednesday.

“I think the soccer will sell out,” he told Reuters at the opening of the new wave-like Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park on the day London celebrated one year to go until the Games start.

“My view is that once we see the draw, once people know which team is playing where… that will be the catalyst we need to be able to put the effort behind selling the remaining tickets.”

The men’s and women’s soccer tournaments will be held at grounds across Britain, including Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and Glasgow’s Hampden Park, as well as at the capital’s Wembley Stadium.

Tickets will go on sale for a third time later this year with prices ranging between 20 and 185 pounds ($33-$302). All other sports are already sold out.

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told Reuters last week that he suspected the soccer might fail to fill all the seats.

Deighton pointed out that a huge number of tickets had been sold already, despite nobody knowing who would be playing where.

“It’s clearly the hardest of all the sports (to sell) because of the number of tickets but we sold about 800,000 tickets. That’s incredible when you don’t know who you are going to see,” he said.

“It’s always been difficult because of the numbers. You may have seen finals and semi-finals sold out and we have sold out those.

“It varies by venue but generally speaking the higher profile matches are more sold out,” added Deighton. “So quarter-finals onwards tend to be very well sold and the earlier matches slightly less so, but the pattern isn’t quite as simple as that. Weekend matches tend to sell better.”

Deighton said whether or not the soccer sold out would in any case have a minimal impact on the overall budget and revenues.

“Not meaningful, given the sellout everywhere else,” he declared. “And football tickets, even though there are lots of them, are on balance the cheaper ones. The more expensive ones are the ones we have already sold because they are for the final.”

Deighton said the main issue was ensuring stadiums were as full as possible to provide the right atmosphere and to get people to feel part of the Games.