The government has spent nearly three quarters of a million pounds on tickets to the London 2012 Olympic Games – according to media reports.
The Guardian newspaper reported that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been allocated 8,815 tickets - including 213 for the opening ceremony, which cost £194,525 alone.
The tickets also included 41 of the top-priced ceremony tickets, costing £2,012.12.
A Freedom of Information request by Sky News also found the department paid £71,490 for 143 tickets for the London 2012 closing ceremony.
The Freedom of Information request also revealed that £26,600 has been spent on 411 beach volleyball tickets.
A DCMS spokesman said: ‘Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games next summer is a once-in a-generation opportunity to showcase the UK to a massive international audience.’
‘We are determined to use this unique opportunity to maximise the economic benefits for the country. The government has purchased 8,815 tickets for the Games – around 0.1 per cent of the 8.8million tickets available.’
‘These will be used to invite and accompany a number of international and domestic political and business leaders, as well as guests with a close connection to the Games and its legacy.
‘As we have said before, there will be no free tickets for civil servants, and no tickets at all for the opening and closing ceremonies.’
Nearly two million people applied for the first round of Olympics tickets, of which 1.2million were left empty handed earlier in the year.
