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The cheapest ticket price for a medal session during the six days of track cycling is £50. Locog, the 2012 organising committee, has not yet revealed exactly how many of the 6,000 seats will be available at that price.

2012 hopeful Victoria Pendleton helped to unveil the Olympic velodrome

Nor have they said how many will be sold at the most expensive price of £325, although it is possible to work out roughly the allocations in each of the five price brackets because Locog has said that, broadly, the same amount of tickets will be released for sale in each category.

But that does not mean there will be 1,200 tickets available at the cheapest price of £50.
That is because only 75% of the tickets for any venue will go on general sale on 15 March. The remaining 25% is split as follows:

* 12% for foreign national Olympic committees
* 8% for sponsors and rights holders
* 5% divided between IOC, international sports federations and hospitality providers

So only 4,500 seats will be on general sale, which means that there will be approximately only 900 for medal sessions at £50 each.

Most people will feel that is not enough, while Locog acknowledges that the track cycling will be oversubscribed and that there will be a public ballot.

The difficult question for those desperate to see the track cycling is whether they should bid for tickets at the higher end of the scale in the hope that improves their chances.

But most people will reflect that £325 is simply too much, even for the chance to see Olympic champions or go for gold on home turf.

In their defence, officials argue that the velodrome is twice the size of the sport's existing home in Manchester. They also point out that the alternative would have been to build a venue that would be rarely full once the Olympic flame has been extinguished.

Despite all this, there is no question that Tuesday's official opening of the velodrome was a big moment for the Olympic Delivery Authority and Locog.

There is still a lot of work for Lord Coe's organising team to do before the venue is ready for the Games but back in 2007, when rows were still going on about the budget and the complications of the largest building project in Europe, Olympic officials would not have dared to dream of completing one of the main venues 17 months out.

Across the Olympic Park, the main athletics stadium might be five times the cost but it is also ahead of schedule and should be finished by May.

But the aquatics centre is a very different story. I took a look inside last week and it is clear the ODA and the construction team are in for the handover at the end of June.

At £262m, the aquatics centre is already way over budget and a expressed concern at the "tight" timetable for the handover of the Zaha Hadid-designed venue.

There are question marks over who will pay for the running costs of the aquatics centre after 2012, too. The Olympic Park Legacy Company admits it will need a significant public subsidy.

At the start of the project, the aquatics centre was always supposed to be the iconic building on the park. With criticism of the "flatpack" main stadium, officials felt one of the venues needed the wow factor. That is why Hadid was hired to deliver something special.

In legacy mode, the centre will certainly be impressive but its impact during the Games will be undermined by the two temporary stands rising steeply on both sides of the venue that will accommodate 17,000 seats.

As for the velodrome, officials felt it was pointless to have a beautiful building if it did not have the capacity to accommodate as many people as possible during the Games.

And it is ironic that many now see this venue - and not the aquatics centre - as the jewel in the Olympic Park.