Ticket sales for the ‘12 London Olympics are “heading into a third round, with many tickets still left" for three sports -- freestyle wrestling, volleyball and soccer, according to Shiv Malik of the GUARDIAN. Despite “hundreds of thousands of fans missing out during the first round” a few months ago, LOCOG said that there are “still 1.5 million tickets left” for soccer. There are 48,000 for volleyball and wrestling. LOCOG “has been criticised for the way sales have been handled.” Buyers during the first round “were left uncertain for weeks as to what tickets they had won in ... the lottery system despite deposits for sales having left their bank accounts.” The second round of sales, which ended on Sunday, was “on a first come, first served basis for those who had missed out initially.” A further sale “will be open to 700,000 applicants who were successful in all or part of their first round ticket applications and will last for nine days” starting this Friday (GUARDIAN, 7/4). IOC President Jacques Rogge said that he “was amazed at the success and popularity” of the ‘12 Olympic ticket program. Rogge said that the system adopted by LOCOG “was fair with a good balance of national and international audiences.” Rogge: "When you have 20 million wanting seven million supply of Olympic tickets, you are bound to have people who are not happy. We are amazed at the success and popularity of the ticket sales for London ... the system in place by LOCOG is fair." In London, Jacquelin Magnay noted LOCOG has sold “nearly 4 million tickets of its total inventory of 6.6 million,” and is “holding back 1.3 million tickets for events across the board for release in December when venue seating is finalised." The organizing committee “has been under fire from angry consumers, including 20,000 who have missed out twice when their orders for second chance tickets were not filled because of over-ordering on the website" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/5).
