Posted at 12:39 a.m., Monday, November 5, 2007
Olympics: Beijing ticket sales return to lottery system
Associated Press
BEIJING — Ticket sales for the Beijing Olympics will revert to a lottery system, organizers said Monday, after a first-come, first-serve process last week attracted so many buyers that the computer system crashed.Demand for the tickets that went on sale in China last Tuesday was so high that the official ticketing Web site had 8 million views in the first hour. Officials pulled the plug on sales that evening after the ticketing system overloaded.
The first phase of ticket sales, which began April 15, had been handled with a lottery system and organizers decided to revert to it "in the interest of fairness and for everyone's convenience," the Beijing Games organizing committee said on its Web site.
People who want to buy tickets can submit applications between Dec. 10 and Dec. 30, the statement said. The date of the lottery will be announced later.
