A Quick Sell : Basketball Final Is Hottest Ticket in Barcelona

Seats at the Olympic men’s basketball final, where most people expect to see Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and the rest of the U.S. national team, are the hottest ticket in Barcelona, Games organizers said Wednesday.

The seats sold out, and demand exceeded even the requests for tickets to the opening ceremony, said Oriol Sera, ticket sales director of the local organizing committee, COOB ’92.

Sera said 67% of all tickets had been sold and an 80% target had been met for all sports except soccer, field hockey and baseball.

Sold-out events include opening and closing ceremonies and all events in swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, judo and fencing.

“We are very confident that during the Games we will sell over 80% of the global ticket total,” Sera said.

Nearly 3.9 million tickets were made available for the 16-day Summer Olympics, which open July 25.

Of the total tickets, 600,000 were sold abroad and the same number was made available to sponsors and sports federations.

COOB aims to earn $113 million from ticket sales to help cover its $1.4-billion budget. Sera said sales had so far brought in $87 million.

Prices range from $460 for a prime seat at the opening and closing ceremonies to $5 for a view of early events in sports such as rowing.