Attention shoppers: Pan Am tickets are moving to the discount bin just days ahead of the opening ceremonies.

The promotion runs through 9 p.m. Thursday, as lead sponsor CIBC marks down all remaining tickets to celebrate Canada Day.

People buying tickets online can get the discount by using the code CIBCPANAM.

Monique Giroux, the vice president of sponsorship for CIBC, said the discount was just a way to celebrate the holiday and there are no plans for further discounts.

“Even though the ticket prices are already quite accessible, it was a nice way to celebrate Canada Day with Canadians,” she said.

“For the sake of the athletes, especially our Canadian athletes, we want to fill those stands, we want to fill those stadiums. We want to make sure they’re celebrated for all the hard work they put into preparing for these games.”

The Pan Am Games run July 10 to 26. The Parapan Games are Aug. 7 to15.

With news last week that only about 650,000 tickets had been sold, just under half of the 1.4 million available, the move risks appearing desperate.

“There is no doubt this is a push at the last minute,” said Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University.

“It looks like they may have to be giving away the tickets to get people to go.”

The tie-in to Canada Day could mitigate the negatives, Middleton said, along with the frequent reminders from organizers that not every seat will be filled.

People who already bought tickets, which have been on offer since September, “might be feeling a bit miffed,” he added, though last-minute deals are common.

The London 2012 Olympics sold 97 per cent of the 8.5 million tickets available. It was the same story in Vancouver, where organizers sold 97 per cent of the 1.54 million tickets at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Despite the numbers, Toronto 2015 organizing committee chair David Peterson is not concerned.

“I think it’s going remarkably well. I’m very enthusiastic about it,” he said.

“More than a third of the sports are all sold out. The medal rounds are selling out. Some of the preliminary ones aren’t as quick, but this is normal in the circumstances.”

As Peterson has said in the past, organizers don’t expect to completely sell out every event at every venue, including soccer in Hamilton and the Ajax ballpark.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Peterson stressed the discounts are not coming from the organizing committee, but from sponsors.

“It’s not us. It’s CIBC doing it. This is exactly the way it should work; the sponsors are using these for promotional purposes.”

Read more about: