EN
27 September 2011 - 13:15 AMT

Demand for tickets for Paralympic Games unprecedented

Demand for tickets for next year's Paralympic Games has been unprecedented and many of the sessions will have to go to a ballot, London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said on Tuesday, September 27.

Ticket sales in Britain opened on September 9 and closed on Monday.

Speaking at the opening of a Team GB and ParalympicsGB outlet at the new Westfield shopping centre at the Olympic Park in east London, Deighton said the public response had been exceptional.

"We are still sorting through the final numbers but we are delighted with the outcome. We have sold hundreds and hundreds of thousands, a very impressive return. In Paralympic terms, it's unprecedented," he said.

"There's a substantial number of sessions where we will have to go to ballot because they've been over-subscribed, which again I think is probably a first for the Paralympic Games."

He said the over-subscribed sessions were more widely spread across the sports than might have been expected, and not just the popular ceremonies, cycling and wheelchair basketball.

Deighton said the ticket sales would not change the overall financial picture for organisers LOCOG, even though revenues from the Olympics and Paralympics are combined before working out any profits.

"Our projections for Paralympic ticket sales were always pretty strong, so basically what we are going to do is hit our target," he said.

The remaining tickets for the Paralympics will be put on sale online in December along with some 1.5 million Olympic soccer tickets.

There will also be a further sale of around a million Olympic tickets held back while sight lines and broadcasting positions inside venues were finalized, Reuters reported.