Hundreds of thousands of unsold Olympics tickets are being sold "behind closed doors to corporate sponsors instead of the British public," according to Jacquelin Magnay of the London TELEGRAPH. LOCOG Chair Sebastian Coe said last year that tickets should be given to the British public to help meet "phenomenal" demand. But the tickets, including thousands for "main events" such as the opening ceremony, swimming finals and gymnastics, are instead "being distributed on an internal sales system to sponsors." The Telegraph was given access to the system Monday and "had the opportunity to buy tickets" for one of the boxing finals and a swimming final, both of which are "sold out for the public." A LOCOG spokesperson "confirmed the existence of the internal ticketing system" and said previous Games had taken the same approach (TELEGRAPH, 7/10). STV reported that a plan to give away free Olympic football tickets for matches in Scotland "has been extended." LOCOG handed out 50,000 tickets to children and young people for the eight matches that will be held at Glasgow's national stadium. Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that the tickets "would be given away through schools" and had now been extended to include "sport clubs, charities and youth projects" (STV.tv, 7/10).
