Tickets

A crowd of 30,000 people, baking in the heat and waiting for up to two days, swarmed a ticketing center Friday as the final batch of Olympic tickets went on sale. Police shoved and kicked them and used metal barricades to prevent a stampede. The Aug. 8-24 Games are the first Olympics expected to sell out, and some fans spent the night on thin bamboo mats and newspapers for a chance to buy tickets that went on sale in different parts of the city. At the main ticket office not far from the National Stadium, tempers flared as sticky bodies pressed against one another in the surging crowd before sales began at 9 a.m. Police yanked more than half a dozen unruly fans from the throng, kicking one who fell as he was being led away and dragging another by his hair.

Turn off all cellphones and pagers -- and for heaven's sake, don't sing. Center Theatre Group -- which oversees the Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas theaters and the Mark Taper Forum -- recently announced its recession-minded Entertainment Stimulus Package, making available 100,000 tickets at $20 for all performances at the three venues for the 2008-09 season, with no limitations. For the Ahmanson's current offering, the musical "Spring Awakening" -- which opened Thursday and continues through Dec. 7 -- there's another bargain option that is not quite as inexpensive, but definitely higher-profile: There are 26 tickets available for each show at $30 a pop for onstage seats that put audience members in the middle -- or at least, on the sides -- of the action.

Adopting a budding trend in the NHL and taking it a step further, the Ducks on Monday froze all ticket prices for next season at current levels and froze food, beverage and parking prices at the Honda Center. The Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild were in the forefront of freezing season-ticket prices for 2009-10, reflecting concern about the sour economy, with the Hurricanes locking in season-ticket holders' prices for three seasons.

It seemed like a good idea. Bring your adopted Chinese daughters (and they're almost all daughters) back to Beijing to experience the glories of the 2008 Summer Olympics, connect with the homeland and watch the Middle Kingdom at a key moment in its history. Then parents started checking the prices, which can run to $15,000 per person or more, including airfare, inflated hotel bills and tickets.

BEIJING -- It is not as though all 1.3 billion people in China are trying to attend the Olympics. It just seems that way if you're trying to book a seat. Tickets to the 2008 Games are proving to be among the most coveted in sporting history. Money, luck, persistence, computer skills and, in some cases, the right political background are among the prerequisites. Scalpers already are demanding as much as $40,000 a seat for the Aug.

Purchasing a ticket to a Beijing Olympics event at this late date isn't out of the question -- if you've got plenty of cash. CoSport, a Far Hills, N.J., company that is the exclusive primary ticket seller for the Summer Games in the United States, Canada and four other countries, has already sold its initial allotment of 67,000 tickets. But the company advises would-be Olympic travelers to monitor its website ( www.cosports.com) in case Olympic organizers release additional tickets.

Faced with continuing demand for tickets for the Dodgers' return to the Coliseum on March 29 despite an early sellout, the club has announced an additional 25,000 tickets will go on sale Saturday, increasing the capacity to 115,000 for the exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox. That would be the biggest crowd to watch a baseball game.

The allure of March Madness guarantees the NCAA will receive at least $3.8 billion from its CBS deal over the next five years. But the organization isn't about to leave any spare change on the men's basketball tournament court. While maintaining a firm stance against unregulated scalping, the NCAA has struck deals with online ticket resellers in a bid to share in the wealth being created as Final Four tickets change hands in the secondary market.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles serves three counties with an estimated Roman Catholic population of 4.3 million. So it didn't take long to distribute the just over 100 tickets it was allotted for Masses to be said by Pope Benedict XVI when he visits the East Coast this month. Among those who clamored for tickets is Helen Milan, 51, who says she is trying to make up for more than two decades as a lapsed Catholic.

The Lakers increased ticket prices across the board for a third consecutive season, a relatively unsurprising action after the team paid almost $5 million in luxury taxes on last season's payroll and faced a larger tax hit next season. Courtside seats were raised from $2,300 to $2,500 a game, an 8.7% hike that moved beyond the typical annual increase of 4.5%. Seats in six lower-level sections between the baskets -- 101, 102, 110, 111, 112 and 119 -- were raised from $230 to $245, a 6.