Coe: Give tickets to sports clubs first

MEMBERS of sports clubs may get priority on tickets for the Olympics under a plan being devised by 2012 chiefs.

The planned scheme by the organising committee, Locog, is intended to boost sports participation and ensure the tickets reach real fans.

Locog chairman Sebastian Coe said this would send a "serious message" that to go to the Olympics it may be necessary to join a sports club.

Community sports clubs have a key role in helping the Government reach its target of getting two million more Britons adopting active lifestyles by 2012.

"If you look at the participation commitments [London has made to the International Olympic Committee], it is clearly important these tickets go to the right people," Lord Coe said after a meeting of the culture, media and sport select committee.

"That means making sure they get to supporters' clubs is very important to our ticketing strategy and is part of what we are looking at."

He said organisers were examining the way tickets for Wimbledon and England rugby internationals were distributed through tennis and rugby clubs across the country.

The move would have the additional effect of helping ensure a knowledgeable and enthusiastic crowd at London's Olympic events, following criticism that some crowds in Beijing were sparse and detracted from the atmosphere in the stadium and on television.

Locog chief executive, Paul Deighton, said that making sure tickets got into the right hands would also help guard against touting.

Although it is illegal to resell Olympics tickets for profit, it has posed a problem at previous Games.

Mr Deighton was unable to confirm that a bid commitment on ticket prices would still be met. He rowed back on a promise made three years ago that half of all tickets for events would cost £20 or less.

Under questioning by Conservative MP Nigel Evans, he said the removal of softball and baseball from the Olympics meant 700,000 fewer cheap tickets, and that more cash must be generated by those remaining.