Thousands of fans pile in to snap up last of Games tickets

IT’S the Commonwealth Games conundrum set to tear families apart – to buy or not to buy a single seat to a moment of sporting history.

Sports fans embraced yesterday’s final release of tickets to next year’s event, with 40,000 snapped up in the first hour and Games chiefs tipping that figure to rise towards 100,000 overnight.

And while finals for swimming, basketball, rugby sevens and diving were declared sellouts, tough conversations looked likely as single and limited availability seats remained for marquee events including the opening ceremony, netball and beach volleyball.

“People are probably dividing their families up to see which person is going to (get to) go to the event,” GOLDOC chief executive Mark Peters said.

“The sports we’ve always talked about – the netball, rugby sevens, opening ceremony, track cycling – were still very popular but interestingly we’ve still got some seats available. In some of the sessions they might only be one or two seats.

“I think what you’ll find is that as we get closer they’ll eventually go … you might find one lonely person who buys their (one) seat will take those events to the edge.”

Yesterday’s final release of tickets included 100,000 “prime” seats to previously sold-out events and a further 200,000 that went unsold during the initial phases.

“One of the interesting stats is the 100m men’s final in track and field still has a couple of thousand seats available,” Mr Peters said.

The GOLDOC boss also sympathised with people who had initial trouble logging on to the ticketing site.

“We know some (people) got caught up when their browsers weren’t refreshing but we were able to get social messaging out there and get them back into the sites,” he said.

“We understand the frustration, and that’s technology sometimes, but we’ve had a great process.”

Games tickets will now remain on sale until sold out.