2012 Olympic Ticket Prices Released

The entry bid for London 2012 said there'd be "4.3 million £20 tickets and 6.2 million tickets to be sold for less than £30". Today's release of ticket prices for each sport reveals that actually, just 2.5m are the lowest priced, and 1.3m of those will be reserved for the 'pay your age' tickets for under 16s. Is this the affordable games we were promised?

As far as we can tell, every sport has a £20 option, but these are usually only for the preliminary rounds and - with some sports having five ticket price categories - there's no way of telling how far away from the action you'll be. Tickets for the Athletics prelims in the Olympic stadium range from £20 to £150 per ticket, for example, and while LOCOG say "all ticket prices will provide a great Games experience", we wonder whether £20 ticket holders should go expecting to soak up some atmosphere rather than hoping to spot Usain Bolt on the track.

Other wallet-busting options include £450 to watch the beach volleyball, diving, swimming and artistic gymnastics finals from the best seats (is it just us, or are these the sports where the athletes don't, er, wear very much?), £325 for the velodrome, £275 for the equestrian finals, £425 for men's boxing and £395 for men's basketball finals. Bargain hunters may want to consider the triathlon in Hyde Park (top price £60), shooting in Woolwich (£40) or the chance to catch play on No 1 court in Wimbledon for about £75. Though in this case, 'bargain' depends on whether you've got a family...

One in eight schoolchildren will also get free tickets (though that means 7 out of 8 will not) and, appallingly, there are no concessions for locals either.

While initial stages of each sport means you at least get to see all the stars as they plough their way to the finals, surely what we want is packed stadia cheering on Team GB to victory when the medals are sorted out. At these prices, the big screens in the Olympic Park may be the closest many of us get to sporting glory.