Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit (left) and Dr. Clemens Prokop, President Local Organising Committee on the track after today's Berlin 2009 press conference (© LOC)
With exactly 500 days to go to the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin 2009 the Local Organising Committee announced at a press conference today the start of the ticket sales.
The conference could hardly have taken place in a more fitting venue: it was held in the Jesse Owens Lounge of the Berlin Olympic Stadium. 73 years after the Berlin Olympic Games during which Jesse Owens won four gold medals the German capital will stage a global athletics championship again. The nine day event will start on 15th August and end on 23rd August 2009.
“I am looking very forward to the start of these championships, since it was our desire to have them in Berlin. After we had lost out in the race for 2005 we did not give up because we really wanted to get this event, which is number three in the ranking behind the Olympics and the Soccer World Cup,” said Berlin’s Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit. “These championships will be a huge bonus for Berlin, but also for Germany and for Athletics. We can present Berlin as an international metropolis. And I am sure that we will see outstanding championships.”
Fresh blue track in the stadium
The renowned blue track of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium will look fresh and new for the World Championships since it will get a new surface. As the Media Manager of the stadium Christoph Meyer explained this will be done in conjunction with some changes of the positions of field events according to IAAF rules. Those works will most likely be scheduled for early summer 2009 after the end of the football season and after the ISTAF, the ÅF Golden League Meeting.
Clemens Prokop, the President of both the Berlin Organising Committee and the German athletics federation (Deutscher Leichtathletik Verband), stressed the importance of the next World Championships being held in Europe: “Europe is still the heart of international athletics – especially when there are events like this one. It is important that these championships will be staged in Europe again after Osaka 2007 and the Olympics in Beijing this year. I hope that Berlin 2009 will give German athletics a big boost.”
Deutsche Post first national sponsor
Organisers also announced the first national sponsor for these championships: Deutsche Post. The postal service will start a number of activities to help promoting Berlin 2009. “We are happy to be a partner of the world’s biggest sports event in 2009,” said Ingo Bohlken, member of the board of directors of the Deutsche Post. The company will for example advertise the championships in their post offices and plans to introduce a special stamp early next year. “We are expecting to reach agreements with further national sponsors and suppliers soon,” said Clemens Prokop.
Ticket details and prices
Organisers are expecting to sell all 500,000 tickets available for the nine day event. Already 60,000 of these are sold. 55,000 were ordered by international organisations and travel agencies while 5000 sold this morning right after the start of the sale.
There are four different categories of tickets: Cheapest tickets start at 13- Euros for the Tuesday morning session. This will be the only day where separate tickets are issued for the morning. On all other days with early sessions there will still be only one ticket, which gives access on both the morning and the evening sessions. Prices for a whole day or an evening session start at 20,- Euros and go up to 135,- Euros for the seats nearest to the finish line of the track. These finish-line tickets’ though will only be available from May onwards.
Nine day tickets for all events are available in the three more expensive categories only. They are priced at 350,- / 470,- / 960,- Euros. While small children under the age of six will be allowed to enter free of charge with accompanying adults helding tickets there is a 20 percent discount for certain groups (pupils, students, disabled etc.) on day tickets. This will not be valid though for the top seats near to the finish line. Tickets will also include the use of public transport in Berlin.
Tickets for the section with the five lilac blocks (15 – 17 and 19 – 20) are be between 20,- and 30,- Euros (13,- for the one morning session) while those for the light blue blocks cost between 35,- and 45,- Euros (again 13,- for the Tuesday morning). All green blocks cost between 65,- and 75,- Euros (again 13,- for the morning session) while seats in the orange section will be between 120,- and 135,- Euros (15,- for Tuesday morning).
Click here to go to the Ticket sales website
Jörg Wenig for IAAF
