By Tom Degun

Seb_Coe_Jan_7January 7 - London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe (pictured) says tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games are reasonably priced and claimed organisers have been creative in their efforts to offer low-cost tickets to both children under 16 and adults over 60.


London 2012 have previously stated that 90 per cent of tickets would be £100 ($157) or less, with 66 per cent under £50 ($77) and around 25 per cent costing £20 ($31) or less.

Prices for premium events such as the Opening Ceremony are set to range from £20.12 ($31.10) to a whopping £2,012 ($3,110) while tickets to the men's 100 metres final range from £50 ($77) to £725 ($1,120).

Of the 8.8 million tickets available, 75 per cent will be sold to the public from March this year and Coe is confident they will receive value for money.

"I think the tickets are reasonably priced and I think there are plenty of opportunities within that pricing structure," Coe told BBC London.

"We have done some quite creative things like 'Pay Your Age' - so that any child under 16, on that application, will pay their age.

"If you have two children that are eight and nine, they will be paying £8 ($12) and £9 ($14) for tickets.

"Anybody over 60 will still only be paying £16 ($25) as we want everyone to feel young!

"We've done some other smart things, I think, with ticket share where we've put a premium on the big packages - and that means we've been able to, for instance, get one in eight children going to the Games for free."

Coe added that organisers are also close to striking deals with train companies to provide cheaper tickets for fans.

"Yes, we are near," he said.

"We are certainly speaking to the train operators and other forms of transport.

"I know that the price of a ticket is only one determinant in terms of whether a family is going to come.

"We know that this cannot be such a large chunk of a month's disposable income that it makes it prohibitively expensive to come.

"From the outset I have been very, very clear that I have wanted these Games to be accessible not just to people in London but in parts of the world that I was bought up in and have worked in."

The double Olympic champion added that 2011 is a crucial year for organisers to stage successful test events and finalise preparations for the Games.

Coe said: "It's about getting ready to stage the greatest sporting event in the world - to test to the point where nothing you are thrown in competition, you haven't seen before.

"It's like in track and field - I never wanted to go into a situation where I hadn't dealt with it 100 times before on the training track.

"It's exactly the same."

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