Olympic ticket sales 'healthy'

The first week of Olympic ticket sales has been "steady and healthy", London 2012 chairman Lord Coe has said.

Lord Coe said: "Touch wood, the technology has coped with the demands we have put upon it."

"We have got a very, very healthy interest across all sports."

Putting the 6.6 million tickets on sale last week - at www.tickets.london2012.com - has given sports fans six weeks to April 26 at 11.59pm to apply.

Lord Coe also defended the decision to limit sports fans to buying seats for up to 20 sessions. It is one way to ensure that sports fans and families on a budget are not priced out of the Games, he argued.

Speaking at the Press Association's Regional Editors' Olympics Day at London 2012's headquarters, Lord Coe said: "Instinctively we felt that 20 felt right.

"It is not an exact science but we did not want people just going in there and saying 'I want every session in cycling or every session in judo' because then it would be a two tier Games.

"For the big ticket events you will probably be limited to four tickets but there will be other events where you can bring the family.

"We felt that it was about right and did not want a thing where basically it was the people with the biggest income who cornered the market."

The tickets cover 26 sports, over 645 sessions and at 34 competition venues.

Prices range from Stg20 ($A32.45) to Stg2,012 ($A3,264.11).

About 2.5 million tickets across more than 200 events will cost Stg20 ($A32.45) or under with sports fans paying an average of Stg47 ($A76.25) to watch an event, according to Lord Coe.

Tickets for London 2012 include paying up to Stg2,012 ($A3,264.11) for the opening ceremony, up to Stg725 ($A1,176.18) for the showpiece 100m athletics final and between Stg50 ($A81.12) and Stg325 ($A527.26) for the track cycling finals.

London 2012 believe the message that there is no rush seems to have got through. There is a six-week deadline but it is not a first-come, first-served system.

There is no greater chance of getting a ticket if you apply on the first day than later, they restated.

Lord Coe described ticket sales as being "steady and healthy across all sports" adding that it reflected the patterns suggested by the 2.5 million people who pre-registered on the sign up website.

He said: "The six weeks is, if you want tickets, where overwhelmingly you have got a chance.

"Then when you are in the process there is the necessity of figuring out if there is a need for a second ballot towards April and May and then people will know what they have got.

"It is a really big process and it will take us through June just to get through it all."

Tickets on sale also include a series of discount schemes, driven by a Stg25 ($A40.56) levy on hospitality tickets, aiming at getting both young and old people to the events.

The Ticketshare scheme focuses on secondary schools. There is also the Pay Your Age scheme in which under-16s will pay their age while the over-60s pay a flat Stg16 ($A25.96) rate.