Oregon Public Broadcasting

Over 1.5 million tickets for the 2010 Winter Olympics went on sale Friday.  For those of you who are counting, we’re 497 days away from the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver, B.C. Correspondent Tom Banse has more.

Americans from the Pacific Northwest figure to be the largest contingent of ticket buyers outside of the host country of Canada.

Tourists pose with a bobsleigh at the Whistler Olympic Info Centre

Every country gets its own allocation of Olympics tickets.

Americans have to go through a company in New Jersey called CoSport to buy passes for the Vancouver Games.

If you’re interested in seeing Olympic action in person, you have five weeks -- through Nov. 7 -- to put in a ticket request.

A lottery will be used to allocate the high demand tickets. 

Prices start around $34 to watch biathlon and go up rapidly from there.  Good seats at the opening ceremonies or the gold medal hockey match retail for over $900.

A CoSport receptionist said they were too busy to provide more details on the brisk start of sales.

The Olympic Games take place in Vancouver and Whistler from February 12th to 28th in 2010.

Online:

Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee CoSport ticket agency