TENS of thousands of sports fans brought the Glasgow 2014 website to a standstill within an hour of tickets going on sale.
Many users waited for more than an hour to apply for some of the one million tickets available across all the Commonwealth Games events, including the opening and closing ceremonies.
Organisers said they were delighted with the "phenomenal" response and said that website waiting times were coming down after the surge of interest.
A Glasgow 2014 spokeswoman said: "There is a very high level of demand on the website. We are processing ticket applications as quickly as possible and appreciate people's patience during this time, and thank them for their phenomenal support.
"Thousands of people have submitted their applications. Due to the very high levels of demand, however, some people may have to queue, although waiting times are coming down.
"It makes no difference whether you apply on the first day, the last or any day in between as long as your application is completed by 6pm on September 16."
Members of the public took to Twitter to share their excitement, saying they had bid for hundreds of pounds' worth of tickets. One person wrote: "My name's in the hat for £500 of @Glasgow2014 tickets. Fingers crossed for the rugby and Opening Ceremony."
Other people used the social media website to express frustrations at the delays in being able to access the site.
One million tickets across 17 sports over 11 days of competition are up for grabs, with two-thirds priced at £25 of less.
The four-week ticketing phase closes on Monday, September 16 and applications can be made online or by post.
To mark the opening of the ticket scheme, Olympic swimmer Michael Jamieson dived into the newly refurbished 50m pool at Tollcross International Swimming Centre. Michael, 25, from Robroyston, is hoping to win Gold on the first night of the competition next year, and trained in the pool as a youngster with the City of Glasgow Swim Team.
Ty Speer, deputy chief executive of Glasgow 2014, said the ticketing system was designed to deal with high demand, which they had expected on the first day.
He said: "We expected day one would be very busy, but that things would smooth out over the next couple of days. The system is very strong, we have kept it as simple as it could be so we have minimised complexity everywhere we can and are confident it is going to get the job done."
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said anticipation was building ahead of the Games.
She said: "I live in Glasgow, I am a Glasgow MSP and I think there is a genuine sense of excitement about the Games so I am confident there will be a strong demand for tickets. The atmosphere will be absolutely tremendous."
Mr Speer insisted deals with sponsors would not be "all about the money". McDonald's and Coca-Cola were both the centre of controversy as backers of the London Olympics, where Mr Speer was client services director.
He said yesterday: "We continue to work on a range of deals. There are quite a few to come on board."
Asked if these sponsors could include companies such as McDonald's, he said: "We will assess every sponsorship deal [to make sure it is] the right fit between that company and the Games, and will always take a step back and see that the messages [the potential sponsors] want to get across or stand for align well with what we are doing. That is a key criterion. It is not all about the money.''
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