Beijing Olympics sold out
Tickets to Olympic events are sold out for the first time in the 112-year history of the Summer Games. Organizers report that all 6.8 million tickets available on sale have been purchased.
Despite the sellout, the Beijing Games will not set an Olympic attendance record. That honor belongs to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics which sold a whopping 8.3 million tickets for the two weeks of events. To put those numbers in perspective, the NBA sells 21 million tickets for a regular season that lasts five months (but feels like it lasts nine).
The most expensive Olympic ticket is for the Opening Ceremonies, which never makes sense to me since it's pretty much just a glorified parade without a Garfield float. A lottery was conducted in China for the right to purchase tickets to the Opening Ceremonies that cost an average of $650. However, scalped tickets are going for upwards of $25,000 according to varied reports. Student tickets are on sale for as little as $12 for a number of preliminary rounds in different events. However, cheap enterprising spectators can catch parts of the road cycling race for free.
