$100,000 Olympic Games seats!

(via The Jamaica Observer)

Jamaicans have already started making serious inquiries about securing tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, but the prices for good seats inside the Olympic stadium could dampen their enthusiasm.

The seats, ranging in categories from AA to the lowest E, will cost Jamaicans a high of $100,000 to as little as $2,760 at today's exchange rate.

Rates posted online by the games organisers show that persons wishing to watch the blue riband men's 100-metre final on August 5 from a premium AA category seat will have to fork out £725.

Those seats, however, will only be available on two other dates — August 10 and 11 when the much-anticipated men's and women's sprint relay finals will be held.

Seats in the next category, A, are going for £420 each which, at today's exchange rate, works out to approximately J$57,900. The other seats on the three premium days are priced at £295, £125 and £50.

It appears though that not many Jamaicans are fully aware of the costs, as the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) has been receiving numerous queries from individuals and firms about buying tickets.

"The demand is great," JOA executive member Don Anderson told the Sunday Observer. "The demand is greater than we've seen for any other Olympic Games, for obvious reasons."

Anderson's reference was to Jamaica's dominance in the sprint events at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in which Usain Bolt shattered both the 100m and 200m records and contributed to Jamaica's 4x100m team breaking the record in that event and winning gold.

Jamaica ended the games with a record six gold, three silver and two bronze medals. The following year, at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany the island's athletes continued their medals plunder taking a record seven gold, four silver and two bronze.

Both performances filled Jamaicans with great pride and set the stage for next year's Olympic Games, scheduled for July 27 - August 12, with track and field fans relishing the sight of Bolt and his Jamaican colleagues again taking on the world's best athletes.

At the time the Sunday Observer spoke with Anderson he had not yet seen the London ticket prices, however he recalled that the most expensive seats in Beijing were in the US$160 range.

Anderson said that the JOA's ticket agent, Cartan Tours — which has been working for the JOA since the Sydney Olympics — will know in another few weeks how many tickets the JOA will receive to onsell to Jamaicans wishing to attend the games.

"Every national Olympic association gets an allotment of tickets," Anderson explained. "We will know by about mid-March what our allocation will be."

He said that representatives of Cartan Tours were in the island about three weeks ago talking with individuals and groups. "People have been suggesting that we try to get all the Jamaicans together in one section of the stadium," said Anderson, who added that each day he receives e-mails from people wanting to know when the tickets will become available.

Jamaica's men's 4x100 metre team proudly display their Olympic Gold medal during the Beijing Games in 2008. From left are Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.