Olympic Test Event Tickets On Sale
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has announced that tickets for some of its first test events this summer are now on sale to the public.
The events have been branded the ‘London Prepares’ series, and include the first competitive sports to take place on the Olympic Park.
Tickets went on sale on Thursday at www.ticketmaster.co.uk/londonpreparesseries, and are priced between £5 and £35 using Visa cards only, and unlike the main event, tickets are sold on a first come, first served basis.
The ticketed events are Mountain Biking, Beach Volleyball, Basketball and BMX.
The Hadleigh Farm Mountain Bike International will bring some of the world’s best men and women’s mountain bikers to the new, purpose-built course at Hadleigh Farm in Essex on 31st July 2011.
The Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International will be an intercontinental women’s exhibition event featuring 24 teams between 9th and 14th August 2011.
A total of 54 matches will be played across the six days of competition, with tickets available for two sessions each day.
The London International Basketball Invitational will see the men’s teams from Great Britain, Australia, China, Croatia, France and Serbia come to London to compete in the new Basketball Arena on the Olympic Park.
The third round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup Series at the BMX Track in the Olympic Park will take place on 19th and 20th August 2011 and will see 130 men and 40 women riders compete for the first time on the Olympic Park.
This event will receive funding from UK Sport’s World Class Events programme which invests National Lottery funding to help stage international events.
LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe said: ‘These events provide us with vital opportunities to test our venues, but also test our staff, our technologies and planning assumptions. They will also provide people with a fantastic opportunity to see some world class sport in these venues ahead of the Games – a snapshot of what is to come next year’.
‘These events are a huge stepping stone for us, helping us to prepare for and iron out any creases ahead of the greatest show on earth next year.’
LOCOG has confirmed that 250 tickets for these events will be donated to schools in the six host boroughs, through the Get Set network, its education programme, and tickets will also be donated to a selection of Host Borough ‘Young Leaders’, through the official London 2012 Young Leaders programme, sponsored by BP.
Between now and 2012, LOCOG will run a number of test events at all of its venues.
The testing programme will focus on testing the sporting field of play; results, timing and scoring systems; how LOCOG teams work together and how people move around venues.
