PTL, a joint venture company formed by Sodexo and the Mike Burton Group, are the official providers of corporate hospitality packages at the Olympics and Paralympics who have designed and built four Games hospitality structures at the Olympic Park, Eton Dorney, Horse Guards Parade and Greenwich Park.

They purchased 80,000 tickets for the official in-venue London 2012 hospitality programme shortly after being appointed by the Organising Committee in September 2009.

They still have almost 20,000 tickets to sell.

But Burton claimed he is confident that all of them will be sold as London 2012 draws closer, despite the current economic crisis which is forcing many companies to cut back on hospitality and marketing.

"What we offer is very unique because we are providing the only hospitality packages that will include onsite hospitality in the official Olympic and Paralympic Games venues along with top-category event tickets," he told insidethegames.

"We have recruited around 4,000 people to work during the Games to provide the best possible experience for guests and the state-of-the-art innovative hospitality structures that will be in place at four key Games venues will help provide an unforgettable experience for everyone that gets the chance to use them during the Olympics and Paralympics.

"So we feel that as the Games draw closer, more and more people will want to take advantage of that.

"A lot of our tickets for the popular sports like athletics, swimming and cycling are all pretty much sold although we do have some of the less well-known sports like handball.


"But we have vast knowledge and operational experience at major sporting events and by our calculations, if sales continue as they are going at the moment; we are on track to sell all of our tickets before the start of the Olympics start on July 27."

Burton also said that the price structure in place is appropriate for the Games despite the fact that tickets start at £295 ($458/€364) per person and exceed £2,000 ($3,102/€2,469) for some blue-ribbon events, such as the athletics medal sessions at the Olympic Stadium.

"What we are offering is a very special, very unique experience to see what is a once in a lifetime event in the London 2012 Games," he said.

"We are offer fully inclusive hospitality packages and 70 per cent of all those packages are £995 ($1,544/€1,228) or under, which is a very good price for what you are getting in return.

"We have done this before very successfully in the past at big events, such as the Rugby World Cup in 2007 in France and in 2011 in New Zealand.

"But this is the Olympics and Paralympics and it doesn't come much bigger than that so what you are paying for is an unrivalled experience."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
April 2011: Prestige London 2012 contract for Neptunus
January 2010: Former England rugby international wins corporate hospitality contract for London 2012