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TICKET SALESThe Rio 2016 ticket sales programme was launched for the Brazilian public on 31 March 2015. Residents of Brazil were able to apply to buy tickets in two draws directly from the official Rio 2016 website (www.rio2016.com), first in March and August 2015, and then in October 2015, which was based on the principal of first come, first served.Within the first 24 hours of tickets going on sale, fans from across Brazil applied for 750,000 tickets, while more than 5.2 million requests had been made by the end of the first sales phase. The most sought-after tickets were for volleyball, followed by football and basketball, with the men’s volleyball final proving most popular. At that time, there were 220 applications for each ticket available for the big game. Following the two initial sales phases, further tickets were made available as seating plans in Olympic venues were finalised. From April 2016, new batches of tickets were released every Thursday, with the top-selling day – 21 July – seeing Olympic fans buy more than 100,000 tickets in less than four hours.Any remaining tickets were then made available at the ticket box offices located in the four competition zones, Rio city and the football host cities from June 2016 until the end of the Games.“We were delighted with how well the Brazilian public embraced the Olympic Games Rio 2016. It’s clear that there was a great desire to be part of the first Games in South America, and fans from Brazil and around the world helped create a real party atmosphere in each and every one of the venues.”Donovan Ferreti, Director of Ticketing, Rio 2016 Organising Committee1.1 MillionTickets available for R$40 (USD 13)5.2 MillionTicket requests made by the end of the first sales phase102 TICKETING & THE SPECTATOR EXPERIENCE