Organizers To Revert Once More To Online Ticket Selling For Olympics

April 23, 2008 9:50 a.m. EST

Beijing, China (AHN) - Olympic organizers decide to return to online ticket selling for the Beijing Games in August abandoning the lottery system being used.

Organizers announced Wednesday that the final batch of domestic-market tickets which is about 1.38 million will be offered once more online starting on May 5 and will end on June 9. The lottery system, which also used simultaneously with the online selling method, has been adopted and relied on after computers crashed due to the overwhelming demand for Olympic tickets a few hours following the opening of the sales phase six months ago.

"Well, we have only 100 days to go before the opening ceremony. We don't have enough time for a lottery draw,'' Zhu Yan, director of the ticketing center for the Beijing organizing committee told the AP. "We don't have time for that to be done.''

Organizers estimate that about 7.2 million tickets would be made available for domestic and foreign sales but was scaled down to just 6.8 million for no apparent reason. Overall, about 9 million tickets for the Beijing Games including a large portion allotted for the International Olympic Committee, dignitaries, sponsors and TV broadcasters, will be released by the Beijing organizers.

Zhu cited that ticket buyers would be limited to three tickets for two sessions or a maximum of six tickets. The same buyer is then allowed to purchase again if the previous transaction has been settled.

Zhu likewise downplayed the issue of "fake or counterfeit tickets" being released in the market and gave the assurance that strict monitoring is in place to prevent as well as detect the proliferation of these tickets. China has been in the limelight in recent years due to rampant counterfeiting problems ranging from DVD's to medicines notwithstanding repeated crackdowns by the authorities.

"In the process of designing the tickets, we have incorporated a series of anti-counterfeiting technologies to make faking tickets rather difficult,'' Zhu told the AP. "We are sure that fake tickets will be created, but they will be low quality.''

Demand for Olympic tickets has so far exceeded the supply despite the controversies surrounding the Beijing Games. China's population of 1.3 billion is reason enough to push the demand for the tickets.

Ticket-scalping has also contributed to the limited supply of Olympic tickets. Scalpers usually target tickets to high-profile events which they plan to resell during the games for a much higher price.

Tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics will also be made available at the Bank of China and on an official Web site yet to be announced.