Organisers insist tickets for the Games will be "highly affordable" but admit they cannot guarantee to honour the initial commitment made by London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe.

 

 

In November 2004, at the launch of the detailed plans for the bid, Coe said ticket prices would "start at £15 and over half of them are £30 or less, and the prices include free transport".

 

An organising committee spokeswoman said the 2004 figures were "indicative" and were based on dollars - the exchange rate is now different - and when baseball and softball were among the events.

 

Both sports were later axed by the International Olympic Committee from the London Games.

 

Paul Deighton, chief executive of London 2012, said: "It was all in dollars, which was a bit confusing, and at bid time we had both softball and baseball, which would have been a very significant number of relatively cheap tickets.

 

"The principle still applies that a very significant chunk of our tickets will be highly affordable so we can get families there. This is the strategy we are working on now and will be finished in 2010.

 

"A very significant proportion of the nine million tickets will be priced so they are very attractive.

 

"There will be some more expensive tickets but the most important point of those is that is what enables us to sell so many cheap tickets."

 

London 2012 last week appointed Ticketmaster to handle the sale and distribution of the tickets, which is expected to begin in 2011.