There will be 140,000 more World Cup tickets available for fans than originally planned for the June 9 to July 9 tournament, organizers said Wednesday, just days after the completion of the third major sales offer of the sought-after tickets.

In that offer, 300,000 tickets were distributed among 677,900 applicants who had requested a total of 6 million tickets.

The lucky recipients of the latest batch of tickets can expect to be notified via email by February 15, as can applicants who placed orders through the internet but failed to secure tickets in the 20-times oversubscribed lottery-style draw, organizers said.

All told, 2.6 million of the approximately 3 million available tickets for the tournament have already been sold, said Horst R. Schmidt, the organizing committee official responsible for ticketing.

There is, however, some good news for fans looking to get their hands on what has been called the hottest ticket in sports.

Capacity at some of the 12 World Cup stadiums has been increased, leading the projected number of tickets to edge up to a total of 3.07 million from previous projections of 2.93 million, organizers said Wednesday.

The number of tickets going to sponsors and partners of FIFA decreased slightly, meaning more tickets will go to ordinary fans, according to organizers.

A small number of tickets will be available for public sale on a first come, first served basis from February 15, and last-minute tickets will go on sale on May 1.