If you fancy proper Olympic tickets, even if you've never ever applied for any before, and you're at your keyboard at 11am this morning, what's available? These are the leftovers after people with no tickets nipped in last week, so don't expect anything amazing. But plenty of expensive tickets remain, plus a few bargains if you know where to look. An overview has been published dividing the sports into good, low and no availability, but this needs to be read in conjunction with the press release to make full sense of the data.
Ordered by availability » Sports with absolutely no tickets at all, so don't bother looking: Athletics, Canoe Slalom, Cycling (Track & BMX), Equestrian, Gymnastics (Rhythmic), Modern Pentathlon, Swimming, Tennis, Triathlon, Opening & Closing Ceremonies » Sports with fewer than 1000 tickets (all at £40+): Gymnastics (Trampoline), Shooting » Sports with a fair number of expensive seats (£45+), but no cheap ones:Cycling (Mountain Bike), Gymnastics (Artistic), Rowing, Sailing, Water Polo » Sports with some cheap seats (but mostly expensive ones): Judo, Wrestling » Sports with lots of tickets (but mostly expensive ones): Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Diving, Handball, Hockey » Sports with lots of tickets, including cheap ones: Boxing, Fencing, Football, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball, Weightlifting » Special offer £10 tickets:Olympic Park Pass
Rule 1: You can purchase up to 4 tickets per session. Rule 2: You can purchase up to 4 sessions. Rule 3: ...unless you fancy football tickets, in which case you can buy at least 20 tickets, maybe 30, because they're increasingly desperate to shift these.
Six top tips for desirable leftovers 1) Basketball, Diving, Handball, Hockey: You'll have to be quick to get them, but these are the last £20 tickets for an event in the Olympic Park. 2) Archery: They're not playing cricket at Lords, they're firing arrows. That'd be different. A few £20 tickets remain. 3) Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling: OK, so these are at ExCel, probably the least exciting of all London's Olympic venues. But £20 lets you watch some sports you'd probably never see otherwise. 4) Volleyball: Earl's Court's being knocked down after this, probably. Last chance to see. 5) Olympic Day Pass: There aren't many of these. They're only available for Monday 30 July to Thursday 2nd August, which is before the Athletics starts. You don't get to watch any events. But you do get five hours to wander around inside the Park, which is huge, and you'll remember that for the rest of your life. Ten quid gets you in. If you hurry. 6) Paralympics Games: World class athletics, dead cheap tickets, massive availability... just click onto the other tab, and you can snap up almost whatever you want.
Rule 4: You can log in before 11am to find out which sessions have tickets available... Rule 5: ... but you can't find out which sessions have cheap tickets available until 11am. Rule 6: Be patient. You may get stuck in Ticketmaster's churning queue for up to 30 minutes. Rule 7: The longer you wait, the less will be left.
Sheer unexpected hopelessness: "The London 2012 ticketing website will not be available from 11pm on 23rd May until 9am on 24th May. This is due to planned and scheduled update work taking place." [announcement at 9pm on 23rd May]
Olympic update
