Melbourne:Nearly 400,000 tickets remain unsold for the Commonwealth Games despite a mini-surge when a new batch was released on Monday for blue riband events.
Although tickets are going begging, Melbourne 2006 chief executive John Harnden and Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper praised the ticketing process.
"We're absolutely delighted with where we are at," Harnden said.
"With 72 hours to go we think we are ready to put on the biggest and best show ever in Melbourne."
Sports fans snapped up almost 19,000 tickets in just four hours on Monday as organisers released extra seats to some of the most sought after events, such as swimming, diving, gymnastics and track cycling.
The ticket release followed finalisation of venue plans such as seating and scoreboard positions and camera platforms.
But despite the sales surge, almost 395,000 tickets remain to Games events, including 5,000 to the opening ceremony, 26,300 for the closing ceremony and about 200,000 for athletics events.
In an effort to ensure the 80,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is packed for the opening ceremony broadcast to some 1.5 billion people, 5,000 tickets will be given away to Games volunteers.
Harnden continues to be upbeat about ticket sales, pointing out that despite the shortfall, a record number of tickets have been sold.
"We have had an enormous take up, we have sold over 1.3 million tickets and I just think that's phenomenal," he said.
"It's a record by a long long way from any Commonwealth Games."
Hooper said the federation felt the ticketing process had produced a "tremendous result".
"Manchester (Commonwealth Games in 2002) sold approximately 900,000 tickets," he said.
"You've already sold 1.3 million tickets - more than any other Commonwealth Games. It's projected that at least this figure will go to in excess of 1.5 million tickets."
The opening ceremony will be held on Wednesday with the competition getting underway on Thursday and continuing until March 26.
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