THE predicted rush for tickets for the Millennium Dome has not materialised in Bolton.

Tickets went on sale on Wednesday - 100 days to the big day - but so far retail outlets contacted by the BEN haven't sold ANY.

And staff at the stores believe Bolton folk are likely to remain indifferent to its attractions.

Joan Sweeney from Morrisons said: "People have been asking about them and a few have taken leaflets away, but we haven't sold any yet and we don't expect to be rushed off our feet.

"They seem very expensive, it is a long journey down there and you can't even take your car within two miles of the Dome so it seems like a lot of trouble to go to for people from Bolton."

Asda in Astley Bridge, Tesco at Horwich and Morrisons in Chorley New Road started selling tickets yesterday and Sainsbury's are due to launch ticket sales at the end of the month.

The £758 million visitor attraction will be opened by the Queen on New Year's Eve.

With a target of 12 million visitors for the year 2000, Dome organisers, the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), began selling tickets through the UK's 25,000 National Lottery terminals and other outlets at 11am on Wednesday. and marked the occasion by unveiling huge banners inside the Dome. The Dome will be open every day during 2000 and organisers hope visitors will be entertained, educated and inspired by the 14 exhibition zones, a live Millennium show and new comedy Blackadder film showing in the largest cinema in the UK.

Tickets are now on sale for visits to the Dome from January to March 2000. Tickets for April to June will be on sale after Christmas and tickets for the rest of next year some time after that.

Members of the public will be asked to fill in a Dome booking form similar to the one used for the National Lottery draw asking you to state how many people you are booking for, when you want to visit the Dome and how you intend to travel to the attraction.

Shopkeepers will insert this into their Lottery terminals and a Dome ticket will be printed out on a slip similar to an online Lottery ticket.

An individual adult ticket costs £20 but a family ticket for two adults and two children costs £57. Pensioners and students will be refunded some of the ticket price when they visit and children's tickets are available for £16.50.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.