Tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games go on sale on Oct. 3. (Vancouver Organizing Committee)

Seats for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver go on sale Friday, but fans don't have to worry about getting a wristband or camping out all night to get a space in line.

Instead of selling tickets on a first-come, first-served basis, the Vancouver Organizing Committee has given fans five weeks to submit their choices online.

The seats will then be distributed equally by computer, regardless of when the request was made. When demand exceeds supply, a lottery will determine who gets which seats.

But people who choose one of several dozen ticket packages that include a variety of events will get priority over those buying individual seats.

Prices for individual tickets range from $25 for events like Nordic skiing to over $1,000 for the top seats at the opening and closing ceremonies and do not include service and delivery charges.

VANOC has already announced there will be no public parking at any of the events, so service fees will include access to some Olympic buses and public transit.

But the cost of a seat on a special bus between Vancouver and events in Whistler, B.C. will be extra.

Organizers say the online ticket ordering system has been vigorously tested and will be able to withstand the expected pressure of hundreds of people logging on.

VANOC has also reduced the number of seats available to Olympic officials, International Olympic Committee members and official sponsors in an effort to avoid having thousands of empty seats in the stands, as happened in Beijing.

Officials also promised to crackdown on ticket scalping by setting up VANOC's own online ticket reselling service.