By Rebecca Ryser
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee announced Monday the release of 70,000 additional tickets for the Winter Olympics.
The majority of the tickets became available when the National Olympic Committee returned 30,000 extra tickets, said Mitt Romney, SLOC President and CEO.
Other tickets became available when SLOC finalized venue seating configurations, according to a press release from SLOC.
The NOC was given a June 30 deadline to return the reserved tickets, he said.
None of these tickets have been returned as a result of the Sept. 11 tragedy, Romney said.
'People anticipate that these Games will be safe because we will do everything within our powers to ensure that all risks are being minimized,' Romney said.
Prices for the tickets vary depending on the event, said Jeanne Shaw, media relation manager for SLOC.
'I think you''re going to see these tickets going very fast,' Romney said. 'Each time we have gone out with a launch of tickets, our lines have been swamped.'
The 52,000 people who were part of the original ticket request program will be able to purchase them beginning Oct 3 at 10 a.m. MST, Romney said.
According to a news release from SLOC, those who don''t currently have tickets will be able to purchase them beginning Oct. 8 at 10 a.m.
The remainder of the tickets will be on sale at Smith''s Tix beginning Oct. 15.
The 70,000 tickets just released are for speedskating, ice hockey, freestyle aerials, ski jumping and downhill, said to a news release from SLOC.
Original tickets are still available for all other events except for women''s giant slalom qualifying snowboard, men''s and women''s giant slalom snowboard, and the men''s and women''s giant slalom finals, according to the news release.
So far 1,320,000 tickets have been sold, reaching $165 million in sales. Sales are planned to reach about $180 million, Romney said.
Tickets can be purchase at saltlake2002.com. Romney said 756 tickets are on sale at ebay.com.
Tickets on eBay tend to cost more because people are bidding on them, Shaw said.
She said the highest eBay bid so far has been $11,100 for a pair of men''s figure skating tickets.
For those who do not have internet access, operators are on call at 1-800-tickets to take orders, Romney said.
Even with the release of these new tickets, some people are still not optimistic about the possibility of getting tickets to the 2002 Games.
Fern Hill, Sandy resident, tried unsuccessfully several times to get tickets for the Atlanta Games.
'One of the reasons I applied to be an Olympic volunteer was because of my ticket experience last time,' she said.