(ATR) The International Paralympic Committee tells Around the Rings it hopes to sell half of the 1 million tickets still available for Rio 2016.
Rio 2016 said today that 1.5 million Paralympic tickets have been sold. A total of 2.5 million tickets are available for the Games, down from the initial 3.3 million the organizing committee initially estimated it would sell.
IPC communications director Craig Spence told ATR the committee expects to sell two million total tickets, although the final number could be higher. Spence said that Rio 2016 believes all tickets available will be sold, but said the final number is likely to be "somewhere in between" the two projections.
"I think to go from 200,000 tickets to 1.5 million in two weeks is brilliant," Spence said. "We are really happy, but we would like to sell more."
Rio 2016 said in a statement that a "change of the pattern" shows a continued uptick in sales that should continue through the Games.
"We [are seeing] people, look for specific athletes and scheduled duels," Mario Andrada, Rio 2016 communications director, said in a statement. "To see sport as the main reason for people to buy a given set of tickets is very rewarding."
The IPC is hoping to push certain sports over the next 13 days, especially athletics. Spence said organizers have "loads of tickets to sell for that event because it is in a massive stadium".
As ticket sales increase, not all venues will be completely full, even if events are sold out. Spence confirmed to ATR that many venues will see reduced capacity as a result of service cuts to the Games. A Rio 2016 spokesperson added that the venue reductions were first confirmed a few months ago, but the change of wheelchair fencing venue and the budget cuts impacted the final seating arrangements.
"We had to reduce some of the venue capacities because there weren’t the staff to ensure we could get all the people in securely and safe," Spence said.
Village Update
Athletes and officials from every national team delegation are in the Paralympic Village. According to Rio 2016, by the end of the day 7,583 people - drawnfrom 161 countries and including the refugee team -will be living in the village.
Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro
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