With 135 days to go to the Torino 2006 Opening Ceremony, the ticket office has opened again after selling 56% of the total tickets, and for 63 competitions, more than 70 % of the tickets available. No event is sold out yet, but some of the price brackets are no longer available for many competitions. So, if you are interested in following the Games in person, you should not delay making arrangements for the Olympic experience. More than 130,000 tickets have already been sold for Ice Hockey, 52,000 for Speed Skating, 45,000 for Figure Skating, 40,000 for Alpine Skiing and 22,000 for the Curling matches. Still available are some “Follow My Team Finali” subscriptions for the men's Ice Hockey; these ticket packets allow fans to choose one of the following teams: Italy, Germany, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Sweden, or Switzerland (the others are sold out) and follow its matches in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and in the finals for the Olympic title. If the chosen team is eliminated, the subscription assures a seat at the finals following another team, through an assignment system set up by the Torino 2006 ticketing office.

On the occasion of the reopening, the Torino 2006 ticket office is rewarding its public with a special initiative: “Bring a friend to the Games and win an exclusive invitation to the Medal Plaza”. Everyone who has bought one or more tickets (leaving his or her e-mail address) will receive an e-mail message from Torino 2006 with the invitation to involve family members and friends in the Olympic experience. The mechanism is very simple: if, when you buy a ticket on the site: www.torino2006.org/tickets, you indicate “codice Torino 2006” (Torino 2006 code) of a friend who has already bought tickets and who has involved you in the initiative, your friend will be given two free exclusive invitations to the Medal Plaza.
www.torino2006.org/tickets

Icer Event
Rescheduled for this Thursday
A company that makes wax for snowboards has received a permit to close Fillmore Street for two days in August and install a ski jump and 12,000 cubic feet of snow. San Francisco-based Icer Event Management plans to host a promotional event titled "$100,000 SF Big-Air Pro-Am 2005" on Aug. 27. The company received a permit from the Department of Parking and Traffic to close Fillmore between Broadway and Green streets and Vallejo between Webster and Steiner streets for two days -- one day to set up, and the day of the event. Representatives from Icer did not return phone calls last week,( to S.F Chronicle ) but the event will apparently feature people skiing or snowboarding off a ski jump and onto Fillmore Hill.
According to the New Fillmore newspaper, Olympic gold medalist Johnny Moseley and about 10 of his friends will ski from Broadway down Fillmore Street, onto a 30-foot ski jump at Vallejo, soar 70 feet in the air and land near Green Street. Icer, which makes clothing and accessories for skiing, is a sponsor of Moseley. Icer's Web site provides scanty details of the event. E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.