Vancouver 2010 tickets go on sale starting October 3rd to Canadian residents. As most of you know, I love the Olympics and going to the Winter Games is something I’ve done since Salt Lake 2002. Anyway, I hate how you have to purchase or commit to purchase tickets so far in advance. I find that most people that I try to recruit into going to the big event with me have no idea what they’ll be doing in 2010 or if they’ll even be able to afford it now. That’s fine, I totally understand. At the same time, we’re talking about something that’s a year and a half away, you can’t save $$? I digress.
Tickets go on sale soon and Vancouver has posted their Olympic Experience Packages, which are sports packages that the organizing committee puts together to make your trip planning much easier. I have gone through and chosen packages that meet my requirements and now I have to send them out to the people who are interested. I think I’m going to allow them to vote on the select few and see which ones come out on top. I’m also going to have to decide if I want to add some separate sports on top of the sports that are included in the packages. Some of the packages I like don’t include Curling and there’s no way I’m going to miss out on that!
Anyway, I’m hoping that the whole thing doesn’t end up costing too much $$. My good friend in Canada is doing me the favor of ordering the ticktes and what not for me since (obviously) I don’t live in Canada. After these ticket decisions are made, the next big issue will be lodging. That’s where the total price of the event will really begin to take shape! Here’s the tentative plan for that:
- Fly to Seattle
- Drive to Vancouver
- Stay outside the city and drive
So much planning to do!
The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee can only sell tickets in Canada to Canadians because of IOC marketing rules, but it has deals with the national Olympic committees of about 80 countries to sell tickets for them.
In the US, starting October 3, you can order your tickets, using the packages you want, directly from the USOC’s authorized contractor, CoSports.
You might actually have problems getting your tickets if you have a friend in Canada order them for you, because of the raft of anti-counterfeiting and anti-scamming measures VANOC will have in place. (The actual tickets will have seven levels of anti-counterfeiting measures built right into them.)
For one thing, the tickets themselves will only be made available shortly before the Games, they’ll be delivered directly to the buyer, who must sign for them personally. VANOC hasn’t said so specifically, but it’s also likely that you’ll be asked to show ID at the gate to prove you own the tickets you’re holding.
Make sure you read the fine print on either VANOC’s site, or CoSport’s site before you get your friend to do any ordering, and you can always call VANOC’s call centre to ensure you have the answers to the questions you might have, before you or your friend orders.