A second round of ticket sales for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics will include 50,000 more tickets than first expected, including high-profile events such as gold-medal men's hockey.

The Vancouver organizing committee, known as VANOC, said last week that more than 150,000 tickets would be on offer beginning Saturday, but that figure increased to more than 200,000 after the group took another look at venue seating plans.

"They're all fine seats," ticketing vice-president Caley Denton said Thursday as organizers revealed some of the ticket designs.

"And we've got over a thousand tickets to gold-medal hockey, which I think is exciting for everybody."

Denton said organizers hold back some tickets in case there are fewer seats than expected as the Games approach and venue plans are completed.

Any more seats that become available will be sold during a third, smaller round of sales near the end of the year.

First-come, first-served

The second round will feature tickets for every sporting event, the opening and closing ceremonies and the nightly victory ceremonies.

They will all be sold on a first-come, first-served basis through the committee's website.

The first round of ticket sales began last year, with seats allocated through a lottery system because of high demand.

Altogether, 1.6 million tickets are available for the 2010 Olympics.

The first phase of ticket sales raised $94.7 million for the committee. Organizers are aiming to make up to another $50 million off ticket sales to the public.

In total, the organizing committee hopes to get $260 million from ticket sales, although much of that revenue will come from sales to sponsors, national Olympic committees and other partners.

Colourful tickets

The organizers also revealed designs that will be featured on tickets for four Olympic events: the opening ceremony, ice hockey, cross-country skiing and curling.

The tickets, a treasured souvenir for Olympic spectators, will feature different designs depending on which event they are for.

They feature colourful pictograms of each particular sporting event, with the greens and blues of the British Columbia landscape that make up the so-called "look" of the Games. They also feature drawings of the venues.

Tickets for the opening ceremonies include a woman carrying the torch toward B.C. Place stadium in downtown Vancouver.

The tickets will be mailed near the end of this year.

IOC visit

Meanwhile, members of the International Olympic Committee wrapped up another visit to Vancouver on Thursday to check preparations for the Games.

With just eight months to go, Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of Olympic Games, said Vancouver organizers had made progress in securing accommodations, particularly in Whistler, which has been a persistent concern.

Organizers have examined a worst-case scenario of busing workers and volunteers up from Vancouver to staff the alpine and nordic events if they can't get all the accommodation they need.

Felli didn't offer specifics, but he said organizers have made significant progress during the past few months.

"On the accommodation, the concern is very low because VANOC did a great job of solving quite a few issues up in Whistler, so we're in a good track," Felli said in an interview.

Transportation has also been a major issue, and Felli said a few things still had to be worked out in that area. Notably, he said VANOC is still working to ensure there won't be problems quickly moving workers and spectators between venues, especially in downtown Vancouver.

Additional sponsors

Another concern for the IOC is securing additional sponsors. Currently, the IOC has nine top sponsors, although its goal had been 11.

Still, Felli said the IOC had raised what it had expected to turn over to VANOC, and any more sponsors could mean extra money for the Games.

"We are still working. If we can get more, it's a good thing," he said. "We are hoping we can sign more, but as you can understand, it's not easy at this time."

He said the IOC has already given VANOC the amount of sponsorship money it projected when Vancouver was bidding for the Games, although he didn't know exactly how much money has changed hands.

"For us, the target was to give at least what we've been giving to the past organizing committees," he said.