Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The excitement for London 2012 is really building as next week we hit one of the biggest milestones before the opening ceremony. On Tuesday 15 March we’ll celebrate 500 days to go until the games begin with tickets going on sale.
More than eight million tickets will be available for sports as diverse as beach volleyball, Taekwondo and Greco-Roman wrestling. And with prices starting from as little as £20, and special prices available for young people and seniors, it’s worth everybody – sports fans or not – visiting the London 2012 website to see what’s on offer.
It is absolutely crucial however, that anyone planning to buy a ticket makes sure they get them from an official supplier. In the UK this is the London 2012 website and Lloyds TSB Banks. We can’t be naive. London 2012 was always going to be a target for ticket fraudsters and detectives from the Met Police’s Operation Podium Team have already made arrests as part of their crackdown on organised criminal networks involved in ticketing crime.
Unveiling of the rings
Another sure sign that the Olympics and Paralympics are nearly here was the unveiling of the giant Olympics rings at St Pancras International Station last week. The aluminium rings look amazing and a great reminder of how close the Games are, their 20 metre by nine metre frame looming large across the station welcoming those that arrive from home and abroad to London.
With this and the Olympic Park getting ever nearer completion day-by-day in East London, the capital is really starting to take on the guise of an Olympic Host City.
Irish spirit
Earlier this week I travelled to Northern Ireland to promote London 2012, a part of the United Kingdom that has been one of the most enthusiastic about the Games. Whilst I was there I visited the McAvoy Group and Ulster Weavers, suppliers of office accommodation and merchandise to London 2012. I also visited the Northern Ireland Institute of Sport to see our athletes in training, and met my opposite number in the Northern Ireland Government, Nelson McCausland. And I was lucky enough to met Northern Ireland’s most famous Olympian, Dame Mary Peters. Her passion for the Games, and that of everyone I met, was infectious.
I also spent some time at UK Sport this week, to hear from them how preparations are going for the games. Whether it is helping sport’s national governing bodies prepare our future sports stars, or the work that is being done to bring major sports events to this country as a legacy of London 2012, the sense of commitment and purpose was tangible. As we enter ticketing week and the excitement builds, it’s a credit to all those involved that the project is in the best possible shape.
Log on next week and buy some tickets!