Canada hockey, curling hot tickets at Paralympics, but seats still for sale

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Team Canada remains a strong draw for the 2010 Paralympic Games.

Tickets to all of Canada's sledge hockey games have sold out and so has the gold-medal game for hockey and for wheelchair curling. This Friday's opening ceremonies in Vancouver are also expected to sell out and the closing ceremonies, which take place in Whistler, B.C. are already full.

There are 250,000 tickets available for the Paralympics and unlike the Olympics, there is no quota set aside for sponsors, athletes or officials.

"Once the Olympics end, everyone focuses on the next event since they had such a good time and it's the Paralympics," said Caley Denton, vice-president of ticketing for the organizing committee.

"And then they go to their first event and they get blown away by how good the competition is and it tends to grow, so we expect by the end of the Paralympics to have sold most of the tickets."

Thousands of B.C. schoolchildren are also getting much better access to these Games thanks to a program allowing them to attend some daytime events.

Denton said tickets are still available for the alpine and Nordic events in Whistler and fans are allowed to drive their own cars up to the mountain resort for the events.

In Vancouver, there are still tickets available for earlier rounds of wheelchair curling and sledge hockey competitions not involving Team Canada.

Ticket prices range from $15 for sports events to $175 for the ceremonies.

The Paralympics begin March 12 and end on March 21.