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Olympic officials put tickets on eBay

The Salt Lake Organizing Committee is offering tickets to events at the 2002 Winter Olympics on the auction site and says it will donate some of the proceeds to charity.

2 min read
The Winter Olympics are heading to eBay.

The Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) is offering tickets to events at the 2002 Winter Olympics on the leading auction site. The committee said it plans to donate the money it earns above the face value of the tickets to the Paralympic Games, an event to be held in Salt Lake City where athletes with physical disabilities will compete.

"The special ticket auction will result in a tremendous benefit for Salt Lake's Paralympic Games," SLOC Chief Executive Mitt Romney said in a statement.

SLOC Representatives did not return calls seeking comment.

Olympics fans swarmed the SLOC Web site last fall when the committee first offered tickets online. The initial round of ticket requests ended last December.

The SLOC is offering more than 100 front-row tickets to events such as figure skating, ice hockey and ski jumping. The auctions run through May 30, but the committee plans to offer additional tickets and Olympics merchandise in the coming months.

The Olympics tickets are the latest high-profile auction on eBay. eBay-owned Butterfields is auctioning off a pair of Levi Strauss jeans from the 1880s. In March, eBay featured items that once belonged to John F. Kennedy Jr. and several nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe.

"eBay is the perfect online marketplace for SLOC to reach a large number of consumers," Jeff Jordan, general manager of eBay's U.S. operations, said in a statement.

eBay representatives did not return calls seeking comment.

The SLOC has run into trouble in recent months with its Web efforts. Logictier, which the committee selected last August to host its Web site, backed out of the deal earlier this month when it announced it was changing its business plan. Meanwhile, Quokka Sports, which in a joint venture with NBC owned the rights to produce Web coverage of the Salt Lake City games, filed for bankruptcy last month.