Sydney 2000 Game organizers have "passed a critical
test" for the Games success "with Australians lodging a
record number of ticket orders," according to John Lehmann
of the AUSTRALIAN, who writes that the 317,000 applications,
worth "about" US$226M, "demonstrate Australians were not
turned off" by the Salt Lake City bid scandal. SOCOG can
now "confidently lay claim to at least" $356M of its $389M
ticket target. SOCOG CEO Sandy Hollway said that he "hoped
the ticket boost would attract new sponsors, helping to fill
the" $97M "hole in the sponsorship budget." Lehmann notes
that the application total represents a "14-fold increase
per capita compared with the previous record held by
Atlanta" for the '96 Olympic Games (AUSTRALIAN, 7/22).
SALT LAKE'S TICKET POLICY: In Salt Lake, Mike Gorrell
reports that the SLOC is preparing a ticket pricing and
policy program that will "be presented to the IOC executive
board in December." SLOC Senior VP/Communications Shelley
Thomas says that "as of now ... the average ticket price for
a sporting event will be $78," with 80% of all tickets
"going for less than $100" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 7/22).
