How the Olympics are edging ever closer . . .

5 April 2012
Tickets

If you missed out on those opening ceremony tickets (at which Joss Stone and Girls Aloud are rumoured to be performing, with Cheryl Cole joining her former band mates) or the chance to see Usain Bolt in the 100 metres final, a further 1.3 million Olympic "contingency" tickets will go on sale at the end of this year.

Locog says these are seats that will be made available when venue capacities are finalised - and insist they have not been held back to stimulate demand now for less popular sports.

After the ticketing fiasco, Games chiefs want to give priority for these extra seats to those who registered for the ballot but this may prove difficult in practice.

Locog is deciding whether to release this contingency gradually or in one go at the beginning of next year. Around 3.5 million tickets have been sold in the public ballot and the subsequent second chance sales.

Unfortunately, the only tickets remaining from this tranche of sales are freestyle wrestling and football, the latter with about 1.5 million seats still to shift.

In total, 6.6 million tickets will be sold to the public, amounting to three-quarters of the 8.8 million total. The remainder will be divided between the 200-plus foreign Olympic nations and broadcasters, sponsors and corporate hospitality.

Live sites

Four Olympic-themed open-air festivals will combine live music with Olympic action on big screens throughout the Games. These will be in Hyde Park, Victoria Park, Potters Fields next to City Hall and Trafalgar Square (during the Paralympics only). Line-ups will be put in place once contracts are signed with promoter Live Nation.

Up to 80,000 people are expected for the main events in Hyde Park for the nights of the opening and closing ceremonies, for which the public will have to buy tickets. Crowds on the other nights will more typically be 50,000 and may well be entertained for free.

The events will take place on the parade ground in the north-east of Hyde Park, which will be shut to the public for two months. It will be one of the main ways Londoners will participate in the Games, although some residents are concerned that some events will not end until midnight.

Team GB

It has a £13 million budget and will be the largest delegation ever entered by Britain - 550 athletes in 26 sports, 450 supporters and 300 volunteers. They will be suitably kitted out by creative director Stella McCartney, while director of elite performance Sir Clive Woodward has even issued commandments in a bid to improve Team GB's medal haul (we came fourth in Beijing), including no swearing, tidy rooms and using Twitter responsibly.

Marathon swimmer Keri-Anne Payne became the first British athlete last week to qualify for the Olympics by winning gold at the world championships in Shanghai. Other sports such as archery and shooting have secured quota places without having decided which competitor will take them.

The process of filling all 550 places is complicated and will not be completed until days before the Games. One to watch out for will be Paula Radcliffe's bid to qualify at the Berlin marathon in late September. Competition for places will be especially stiff in sailing - due to announce its squad later this year - and cycling, with world-class British competitors certain to miss out due to strict limits on the number of competitors per nation.

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