Five million tickets will be made available to the Australian public, more per capital than any other Olympic Games host nation.

Tickets go on sale from 30 May 1999 through the Official Games Ticket Book. The book will be distributed nationally through News Limited newspapers.

All Australians will have until 16 July 1999to go through the Ticket Book with family and friends and get their Order Form back to SOCOG. No tickets will be allocated before this time. This means all Australians have equal access to tickets and there is no first in, first served.

The mail process is completely fair to all Australians:

• Where more people order tickets than there is available for certain sessions, orders will go into a random computer allocation that gives an equal opportunity to all.

• The Order Form in the Official Olympic Ticket Book will be your best opportunity to get the seats you want. If you don't get your order in before the cut-off date of 16 July 1999 you might miss out altogether.

• The sport program for the Sydney 2000 Games is the largest in Olympic history - 28 sports and more than 640 different sessions. As the host nation, Australia will compete in every sport.

• Avid fans of particular sports can purchase Sports Passes, which allow them to have seats at every session in that sport at a particular venue. Sports Passes are available for 27 sports.

• Some of the more popular sessions will have ticket limits imposed. For example, a limit of four tickets per customer applies to the opening and closing ceremonies. For the most popular sessions there is a limit of six per customer.

• Seventy per cent of tickets will cost AUD$60 or less.

• Eighty per cent will cost less than AUD$100.

• There will be 10 000 tickets to the Opening Ceremony and 5 000 to the Closing Ceremony priced at AUD$105. Other Opening Ceremony tickets range from AUD$505 to AUD$1 382.

• The most expensive sports ticket for the best seats in the most sought-after finals- swimming or athletics - is AUD$455.

• Swimming tickets range from:
  AUD$35 to AUD$140 for preliminary sessions to
  AUD$95 to AUD$455 for finals sessions.

• Athletics tickets range from:
  AUD$35 to AUD$85 for preliminary sessions to
  AUD$65 to AUD$355 for finals sessions and AUD$455 for the super final' session.

• Ticket prices for the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games will be available late in 1999. These tickets will be sold separately for the Olympic Games.

• Tickets for the 2000 Olympic Arts Festival Harbour of Life' will go on sale at the same time as Olympic Games tickets.