Caley Denton, vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing for the Vancouver Organizing Committee, says when it comes to tickets there is more demand than there is supply. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Thousands of Canadians found out Wednesday whether they will be watching the 2010 Winter Games from home or from the stands.

The organizing committee began charging orders to credit cards a week ago and has now updated all would-be Olympic spectators via e-mail on whether or not their ticket requests were successful.

With ticket requests topping $345 million for a limited number of spaces, some people were disappointed, said Caley Denton, the committee's vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing.

"Everybody understands when there is more demand than there is supply that it's a lottery and it's a random thing," he said.

"They are excited about the idea that they can go into the priority access period and get some tickets and make sure they are still here."

The priority access sales phase is only for the people who made requests during the first round of sales. It begins at 9 a.m. PT Friday and will run for just over a week.

Tickets are still available for some hockey and curling events as well as some mountain competitions, Denton said.

Worries about scalpers

Those sales are first come, first served, raising the question of whether scalpers using the same sophisticated software they use to nab hockey and concert tickets could out-click Canadians in the rush for the remaining seats.

But Denton said that won't happen.

"It's still the unique website built entirely for this purpose," he said.

"We haven't seen any activity like that on the site so far and feel pretty confident that people have to log in one at a time."

Denton said organizers will reveal in the new year how many orders were filled in the first round of sales.

Organizers hope to raise $232 million from the sale of 1.6 million tickets overall.

The lowest price for a ticket was $25 for some preliminary events, while the best seats at the opening ceremonies cost $1,100.

Seventy per cent of those go to the public, but for high-profile events, the number of public seats is much lower because Olympic officials, athletes and media get priority access.

A second phase of ticket sales will be held next February, but a planned third round was cancelled due to the high demand this time.