More than 1,000 remaining tickets for the men’s gold-medal hockey game sold out in “mere minutes” during this weekend’s second phase of Olympic tickets sales, VANOC announced.
About 200,000 tickets were made available to the public on Saturday at 10 a.m. with men’s gold-medal hockey, along with Opening Ceremony, speed skating and figure skating among the first tickets to be purchased.
Demand remained strong throughout the first part of the day, as more than 22,000 orders for 130,000 tickets where placed from Canadians across the country.
“We anticipated demand would be high for tickets, and the level of interest we saw today was very exciting and, once again, a testament to the pride and support Canadians continue to show in being part of Canada’s Games in 2010,” said Caley Denton, VANOC vice president, ticketing and consumer marketing.
During the rush for tickets on Saturday morning, the vancouver2010.com website experienced traffic of more than 1,300 hits per second and by noon had set a record for page views at more than 5 million.
For those still looking for tickets, or disappointed that an event is sold out, VANOC is launching an authorized ticket resale program later this year that would ensure resold tickets are legitimate.
A third, smaller phase of ticket sales is also planned for this fall.
