SLOC Says Sales Are Booming

Salt Lake City, UT, Jan. 15, 2002 (AP)–Salt Lake Olympic organizers, down to their last 180,000 tickets, enjoyed a post-Christmas boost in sales instead of the expected sales drop.

After selling an average of 868 tickets worth a total of $92,000 a day during December, January’s daily sales have climbed to nearly 1,800 and almost $200,000.

Sales reached $311,000 on Thursday alone, said Fraser Bullock, Salt Lake Organizing Committee chief operating officer.

“We’ve now sold out 67 events,” he added. “But we still have 100 sessions left.”

Tickets for remaining competitions range from $25 for cross-country skiing to $375 for men’s figure skating.

The men’s gold-medal hockey game on Feb. 24 is sold out, but tickets remain for the women’s hockey final three days earlier.

Tickets are sold out for freestyle moguls and aerials at Deer Valley, all snowboarding events and the men’s and women’s giant slalom ski races at Park City Mountain Resort.

Half of Snowbasin’s six Alpine ski races also are sold out, but not the women’s downhill.

Tickets remain for the men’s free skate and short program, all three nights of ice dancing, and three quarterfinals and one semifinal game in the men’s hockey tournament.

SLOC has no tickets to men’s bobsled races. Two of three Nordic combined events are sold out, while only one luge session _ the women’s finals on Feb. 13, remains available. Sellouts include five curling matches, two biathlon competitions and six cross country races.

SLOC President Mitt Romney said organizers have raised $172 million from ticket sales, just $8 million shy of SLOC’s ticket revenue target.

Tickets also are available from ticket brokers.