Your FREE guide to Olympic ticketing

ATHLETICS:ONLY 500 days to go! Well, not exactly, but it will be from next Tuesday, and in many ways that marks the first critical date for anyone hoping to make it to next year's London Olympics.

It’s not the athletes I’m taking about here: we already know how difficult it’s going to be for them to qualify, and if last weekend’s European Indoor Championships in Paris were anything to go by, those who do make it will need all the support they can get. Likewise with our boxers, swimmers and whichever other determined young men and women step forth – “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, as Alfred Lord Tennyson says, in the now official London Olympic poem, Ulysses.

What next Tuesday marks is the opening of the six-week window for the public purchase of London Olympic tickets – 500 days before the opening ceremony – and while it’s not actually first-come first-served, demand is certain to outstrip supply. There may be 8.8 million tickets being printed for the 645 sessions across the 26 sports, but there’s no guarantee any Irish supporters planning to make the short trip to London next summer will automatically qualify for tickets.

So, without further ado, The Irish Times athletics column presents a FREE 12-Step Guide to purchasing London Olympic tickets. Believe me, there is no commission whatsoever involved here, just the hope that some of you will get to share in this £9.3 billion (€10.7bn) five-ring circus that rarely if ever disappoints. Good luck!

1. Register NOW at tickets.london2012.com – or at least start checking out the website. We know the Olympics will run from July 27th to August 12th, but it’s a crazy, busy schedule, with a fairly intricate pricing system. The six-week window to purchase tickets runs from March 15th to midnight April 26th, and orders can be submitted at any stage during the 42-day period. There is no real advantage in applying early, but with such a dizzying array of sessions and prices you’ll want to be quite certain of what you want to see and what you can afford before it’s too late.

2. The general public can ONLY purchase tickets through the website (unless you live in the UK, where written applications can also be made, using a cheque or postal order). Actually, only 75 per cent of 8.8 million tickets are being sold this way, and only to countries within the EU. The remaining 2.2 million tickets will be sold outside the EU through designated National Olympics Committees and limited hospitality and travel packages.

3. Sorry about this one, but you will NEED to get your hands on a Visa credit card, provided of course you don’t already have one. As one of the official sponsors of the International Olympic Committee, Visa have exclusive rights on all credit card payments at the London Olympics – just as fellow sponsors McDonald’s are the only ones allowed to sell you a burger in London’s Olympic Park.

4. Start to SELECT your preferred events. All the London Olympic schedules have now been published, and can be viewed at london2012.com – if, unlike me, you haven’t memorised them already. Obviously some sessions will attract greater interest than others, such as the evening of August 5th, when Usain Bolt will likely defend his 100 metres title. The important thing is deciding what you really want to see.

5. Next, work out your BUDGET. The London organisers are certainly offering an impressive range of ticket prices – from just £1 (€1.16) under the pay-your-age scheme, to £2,012 (€2,330) for a trackside seat at the opening ceremony. They claim 90 per cent of tickets are priced at or below £100 (€115), with 2.5 million tickets priced at or below £20 (€23.17). In fact, most of the 645 sessions across the 26 sports will have a certain allocation of tickets priced at just £20 (€23.17).

6. Get ready to PLACE your order. Be certain of the day, time, venue and ticket price, as printed on the Olympic schedules. Naturally, the higher the price the closer you will be to the action. Each session also has a ticket limit in terms of the number you can apply for, typically six, but up to 20 in the larger venues such as the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. The opening ceremony is limited to four tickets per person.

7. You can also decide a RANGE of ticket prices. If your preferred price is not available, you have the option of selecting a higher or lower price category, for each session applied for. Remember, you may also need evidence of birth date if applying under the pay-your-age scheme (under-16s only), or if over the age of 60, where tickets are also available at £16 (€18).

8. Once the ticket order is placed comes the WAIT. If after the six-week purchasing window sessions are over-subscribed – and inevitably some will be – then the organisers will conduct a ticket ballot. So, you may not get everything you order. But if you are successful then payment will be taken from your Visa card between May 10th and June 10th, 2011, and notice of all ticket allocations will be made by June 24th, 2011.

9. Don’t WORRY too much about transport. Each ticket will include free travel on public transport in London on the day of that particular event, although remember as well that some Olympic venues are on opposite sides of London.

10. There is still the option to SELL ON tickets. If successful in your application, you will be charged for all tickets requested, but the organisers also intend to set up an official online ticket exchange early next year, where any unwanted tickets can be offered for sale, at face value, to other customers. But there won’t be any refunds for unused tickets.

11. Forget about relying on TOUTS. Only yesterday the British government announced it has quadrupled the fine for touting at the London Olympics – to £20,000 (€23,167) – as part of a wider clampdown designed to deter the sale of tickets on the black market. We’ll wait and see how successful that is.

12. Remember that some Olympic events are still FREE. The road cycling and time trials, race walking and the marathons are all being staged in and around central London, where spectators can simply pick their spot on the footpaths. And in a break from tradition, the marathon will finish down by the Mall instead of inside the Olympic Stadium, although even standing room around there is likely to be something of a priority.

In the meantime, let the Ticket Sales Begin!