You can blame the EU apparently for them not being able to sell Olympic tickets to London or UK residents at a different price to rest of Europe. Although I believe those who lived close to venues did get offered the chance to buy cheaper seats to make up for some of the inconvenience - I have friends in Greenwich who picked up £50 tickets to the 100m final through that scheme. Tickets-wise though, they have been around and at reasonable prices. The average price of mine works out to £40 and I only got one set in the original ballot. I've picked up several more in recent weeks just by keeping an eye on the official website. Last week, another friend got tickets for his whole family to go to water polo (a day out in the Park too) with the 'pay your age' offer so it's costing them £49 for the four of them to see an event. Not a pittance but equally, no worse than a trip to a theme park.

The Boris announcements that I've heard didn't say to avoid public transport entirely (and the message is definitely not to take the car) but that some parts of it would be exceptionally busy so you should plan your route accordingly. E.g. If there's an event on near a station at 7pm, then perhaps try to avoid going through it until after 7 when the rush of spectators is seated - or be prepared to wait. I too think they are trying to overegg the problems so that people don't get stressed waiting for slightly longer than usual.