On Friday 13 February 2004, from 08:00, six months before the Olympic Games, a significant number of tickets will be made available to the Public for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and for sport competition sessions for which until now were not available.

As the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has already pointed out on various occasions, the construction and allocation of space for stands in Competition Venues, which is nearing completion, and the finalisation of the operational planning and corresponding requirements for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies practically finalised (necessary technical infrastructure, broadcasting requirements etc.), combined with the needs of the Athens 2004 contractual partners, allows modifications to the number of tickets available to the public for each competition session.

In total, an additional 35,230 tickets will be made available for purchase, as follows:

1,000 Tickets for the Opening Ceremony.

4,000 Tickets for the Closing Ceremony.

11,700 Tickets for Athletics Finals, for 4 competition sessions on 22, 26, 27 and 28 August.

5,150 Basketball Tickets for 6 competition sessions: 3 Preliminaries (15, 17, 21 August) where the Greek National Team is competing, and for Men’s quarterfinals, semi-finals finals (26, 27, 28 August).

1,400 Tickets for all Rhythmic Gymnastics events (26, 27, 28 and 29 August).

4,550 Tickets for 11 Swimming competition sessions (between 14 and 21 August).

1,150 Tickets for Weightlifting, for Group A, in Men’s 69kg, 77kg, 85kg and 94 kg categories.

6,280 Tickets for another 12 Sports: Diving, Artistic Gymnastics, Synchronised Swimming, etc.

Ticket purchases can be made from:

140 selected branches of Alpha Bank throughout Greece.

The Official Ticketing Webpage ‘www.athens2004.com/tickets’

It should be noted that Ticket purchases take place in real time, on a ‘first come – first served basis’ and until supplies last. Relevant information is available at the Ticketing points of sale, given that Tickets are being sold on-line and that availability is continuously changing.

Regarding all queries concerning the Ticket sales procedure, the public may:

call the Ticketing Call Centre: 800-11-2004-2 (free phone for calls from Greece) and +30-210-373-0000 (callers charged for calls from mobile phones or from abroad)

send messages via e-mail to: supportel@tickets.athens2004.com

Given the construction schedule for Competition Venues and the allocation of space for stands, and with the intention of keeping the seat assignments process, whereby specific seats in the Competition Venues are assigned to the tickets purchased, as accurate and correct as possible, it has been decided to begin the seat assignment on 17 April 2004. Ticket Sales will not be taking place during the seat assignment process and for a period of 45 days.

Thus, the current Ticket sales phase will be suspended on 16 April 2004, in order to begin the seat assignment process. Ticket sales will resume on 1 July 2004 and will continue during the Olympic Games, with Ticket Box Offices operating in all Competition Venues.

Ticket sales will be taking place through 140 selected Alpha Bank branch offices throughout Greece and at the Official Tickets Webpage, at ‘www.athens2004.com/tickets’.

From 1 July 2004 onward, persons buying tickets from Alpha Bank will be able to collect them directly, while those buying tickets from the Official Tickets Webpage will be able, producing their ID card and giving their Personal Ticket Account Number, to collect their tickets from any one of the 140 Alpha Bank branch offices throughout the country.

Final Sales Schedule:

End of current Ticket Sales phase: 16 April 2004

Seat assignment process (suspension of sales): 17 April – 31 May 2004

Start of final ticket sales phase: 1 June 2004