News

Tickets For Troops and the London 2012 Ticketshare scheme allocate 10,000 Olympic and Paralympic tickets to members of the Armed Forces

Members of the Armed Forces will today discover if they have been allocated tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games when the charity, Tickets For Troops, run their ballots for the first time.

Ten thousand tickets have been donated to servicemen and women via the London 2012 Ticketshare scheme which has funded tickets through a levy placed on London 2012 hospitality packages sold by Prestige Hospitality.

Tickets for all 26 Olympic sports and 14 Paralympic sports will be allocated with 1,750 tickets available for Olympic sports, such as Athletics, Cycling and Boxing, and 2,360 Paralympic tickets, all in the Olympic Park.

There are 600 tickets to watch Football at Wembley Stadium and 700 tickets for sports such as Wrestling, Table Tennis and Judo at ExCeL.

In June 2011, LOCOG Chair Lord Coe and Board member Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson launched the scheme with 50 servicemen and women from the Army, Royal Navy and RAF who were then taken on a tour of the Olympic Park construction site.

Since then ballots had been open on the Tickets For Troops website, where members of the Armed Forces and those medically discharged since 2001 were able to enter their details for a chance to be allocated tickets to the Games.

As well as the 10,000 tickets allocated to Tickets for Troops, the London 2012 Ticketshare scheme will see 125,000 tickets donated to London schoolchildren, a further 50,000 will be distributed to schools across the UK. The British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association will receive 5,000 tickets each and a total of 5000 tickets are being allocated to Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, sportscotland and Sport Wales. 

LOCOG Chair Lord Coe said: "I'm absolutely delighted that through our Ticketshare scheme we will be involving members of the armed services and their families.  Through the sale of our Prestige tickets we are enabling the donation of tickets to a number of deserving causes - it would be unimaginable that we wouldn't include our armed service personnel.”

Tickets For Troops Patron, Samantha Cameron said "It is fantastic that members of the Armed Forces and their families will be able to attend the Olympics and Paralympics thanks to this hugely generous donation of tickets. This is a wonderful way to show our gratitude for all they do on our behalf and will provide a great opportunity for troops to spend time with the people they care about most"

Lord Marland of Odstock, Chairman of Tickets For Troops said:  "I am delighted that so many troops and their families will be able to attend this important and historic global event in our country.   This amazing support makes a real difference to the troops who are doing such an extraordinary job during these difficult times."

For more information
Please contact Rosie Trousdell at Tickets For Troops on 0207 9320808 or email press@ticketsfortroops.org.uk
For all other enquires please contact Ross Barden at Tickets For Troops – ross.barden@ticketsfortroops.org.uk
For more information about Tickets for Troops, please visit www.ticketsfortroops.org.uk

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