The first day of ticket sales for the 2007 Canada Winter Games concluded Monday and left some locals frustrated by the difficulty of getting tickets.

So far though, only men's gold-medal round hockey tickets are sold out, George Arcand, the assistant vice-president of the Games' host society, said in an interview today.

'There's a reasonable number of tickets on everything else,' he said.

Men's gold medal curling looks like the next event that will sell out, with fewer than 100 tickets left, he said.

While there is no access at all to synchronized swimming due to all the seats being reserved for parents, all other events are 'good,' he said.

That includes 700 to 800 more seats for the opening and closing ceremonies, which started with about 1,200 seats.

Hockey fans seemed to be the most determined to get tickets from the Hougen Centre ticket office, he noted.

'They were there early, that's for sure.'

Arcand said there were two phones hooked up Monday and both were busy all day.

'I know it did take time but you can only go so fast with a ticket order,' he said, explaining the problem callers had getting through the phone line to buy tickets.

That explanation is unsatisfactory to at least one local man, however.

Glen Webster was one of many locals who tried to purchase his tickets over the telephone yesterday. He called and called again.

'All day, can't count them,' he said, referring to the number of times he called.

'I was naive to think that the ticket sales would be up to speed, that all the technology would be in place,' he said.

Webster said he expected to be placed on hold with a recording to tell him he was the fourth or fifth on the line for tickets.

'It's not fair,' he said of the current system of calling and getting a recording that tells callers the ticket sales person is busy.

'I think the best thing would have been if they had just cancelled ticket sales 'til they're up to speed.'

Webster thinks that regardless of when ticket sales began, the result would have been the same and that there is no reason extra phone lines or a hold system are not in place already.

He is also disappointed by the high number of tickets people could purchase, saying 10 per transaction is too high.

'Ten tickets per person, 50 people could clean it up,' he said referring to the limit of 500 tickets for the men's gold-medal game hockey.

'I'd buy boxing if it was available. I tried this morning but I still can't get though.

'I can't image how people from out of town would have gotten through.'

But Arcand thinks the problem will resolve itself.

'I don't think it will be the major line-up you saw yesterday.'

Now that the initial rush has passed, Arcand thinks things will go more smoothly.

Arcand said a major part of the problem was that locals were using the phone line instead of coming down to the ticket office.

'The telephone system is OK and it is designed primarily for out-of-town people.

'The intensity of the phone was created by locals looking to avoid the line-up.'

Arcand thinks the difficulty locals had getting through will prompt them to now come down to the ticket office and save the phone line for out-of-town callers.

'The only complaints I got were from local Whitehorse people,' he said.

Arcand said officials are looking at adding another phone line or a queue system to deal with the high volume of callers.

'I don't think there is an issue. They may have had to call back but they would get through.'

To speed up ticket sales, Arcand encourages locals to go online and review exactly what they want to buy before calling in or going down to the ticket office.

If an event is sold out, that will also be noted on the website at www.2007CanadaGames.ca.