ATHENS, June 3: The 2004 Athens Olympic Games will be sold out despite delays in preparations, organisers said three weeks after the tickets went on sale.

“All tickets will be sold,” ATHOC Executive Director Marton Simitsek said on Tuesday. “The question is if the majority will be sold to Greeks.”

ATHOC has set aside three million tickets for public sale while another 2.3 million have already gone to the games’ sponsors, national Olympic committees and TV rights holders.

Most requests were currently coming from Greece.

“Last week we had two thirds from other European countries and one third from Greece,” Ticket Director Mary Manolopoulou said. “This can change every week.”

Simitsek would not reveal the volume of requests for tickets or the most favourite sports but said ATHOC was confident it will have sold 300,000 tickets — about 10 percent — worth some 20 million euros by June 12.

Tickets went on worldwide sale in mid-May and spectators will have to put in their requests by June 12. All remaining tickets will go on sale between September 2003 and February.

Spectators from outside the European Union and Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein will have to purchase their tickets through their country’s national Olympic committee.

“If this (300,000 tickets) is achieved by June 12 then we will have already exceeded sales of 100 million euros 14 months before the games which is another Olympic record,” Simitsek said.

The games’ partners have paid more than 60 million euros for their tickets and organisers estimate the final figure to be about 80 million by June 12.

The games’ ticket website had 2.6 million visits in May alone and a call centre was registering more than 400 calls a day, Manolopoulou said.

Simitsek said he would not refer to any details so as not to discourage potential buyers. “If we say this sport or that sport is already sold out then many would just be turned off from buying tickets altogether,” he said.

Average ticket prices for the games are about 35 euros, a considerable reduction from 53 euros at the Sydney Games. More than two thirds of all tickets cost up to 30 euros.

The strong sales come despite delays in preparations and construction work which a few months ago triggered a blunt reprimand from the International Olympic Committee.

ATHOC is set to make some 183 million euros from ticket sales, just under 10 percent of its overall revenues.—Reuters