SPORTS hungry fans are set to make the Commonwealth Games a sell-out spectacular after 25,000 tickets were snapped up in just 10 hours of going on open sale yesterday.
Phone lines were jammed and the Games' internet site suffered problems as tickets for the summer event were bought.
Organisers were delighted, hailing demand for the sports events as greater than the recent Madonna concert and the England v Greece football match.
The website was receiving up to 150 hits per second and 100 extra people had to be brought in to help the 350 staff at the London calls centre cope with the demand for phone bookings.
Thirty of the Games' 170 events are now sold out.
Bolton is hosting the badminton events at the Bolton Arena in Middlebrook and three cycling competitions around Rivington in July and August.
Nearly half of the 750,000 tickets for Commonwealth Games events had already been distributed to fans who had registered an interest before November 15, with some of them having to take part in a lottery for over-subscribed events, such as the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics.
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