12000 Commonwealth Games tickets remain unsold

March 11, 2006

With three days until the start of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, organisers still have some 12,000 tickets yet unsold after mailing out some 150,000 invitations to buy tickets to the Games' opening ceremony. At least 40 invitations were sent to the families of 40 deceased people. Organisers have since apologised for this mistake.

Melbourne 2006 chief executive John Harnden says: “Opening ceremony sales are going well…We've sold about 4000 tickets over the last seven days, [and] those rates of sales are continuing... Overall, the rate of sales for tickets are fantastic ... it's an enormous number – bigger than any other Commonwealth Games ever sold." Tickets to the opening ceremony cost $590AUD.

The XVIII Commonwealth Games will be held from March 15th through the 26th. The Opening Ceremony will be held Wednesday night. It will be opened officially by Queen Elizabeth II.