IOC Monitoring Ticket Resale Values For '08 Beijing Games

IOC Marketing Commission Chair Gerhard Heiberg said that the resale of tickets for the ’08 Beijing Olympics at several times their face value is “an issue being closely watched,” according to Stephanie Levitz of the CP. Online resellers for the event are offering Opening Ceremony tickets for “thousands of dollars above their face value.” Two resellers last week were offering tickets to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Opening and Closing ceremonies despite not yet being on sale for the public. The offers were “taken down hours after they were posted, explained away by one company as being a glitch in the software.” But Levitz noted reselling tickets "isn’t unlawful in most of Canada.”  The Olympics began primarily using Internet ticket sales for the '02 Salt Lake City Games (CP, 9/26).