The first phase of ticket sales for the Paris Games ended and the figures achieved attracted a lot of attention, as a quarter of a million more tickets were sold than expected by the organization. This was confirmed by the president of the organization, Tony Estanguet, who also stated that this record is “the highest number of tickets ever sold for a sporting event in France”.
In this first phase, nearly 600 competition sessions were put on sale with thousands of possible combinations. Tickets for climbing and freestyle BMX sold out on the first day and those for fencing, judo, breaking and track cycling in a few days. The most popular sports were soccer, track and field, rugby 7, basketball and volleyball.
More than 400,000 tickets were sold at 24 euros, with almost 70% of tickets sold for less than 100 euros and 4.5% of tickets at 200 euros or more. Almost 50% of tickets are sold for 50 euros or less, although they represent a third of the organizing committee’s income. The French public mobilized en masse, representing two-thirds of the buyers, who belong to 158 countries. In addition, 45% of the buyers were women and 44% were under 35 years of age.
The next sales phase, which will begin on May 11, will be a registration phase for the raffle. All those who have not been able to buy the tickets they expected or those who have not yet tried their luck can register from March 15 to April 20, 2023 on the tickets.paris2024.org website. This launch will offer individual tickets for all Olympic sports, for the unique opening and closing ceremonies, as well as tickets to the most coveted final stages, where the greatest champions will be crowned.
A record figure, but full of criticism
The first phase of sales received a lot of criticism from the public, and a French survey revealed that 82 percent of respondents considered that tickets were too expensive.
Earlier this month, Belgium’s double Olympic heptathlon champion, Nafisatou Thiam, said she feared that her family would not be able to attend the Games to see her seek a third title because of the prices.
“What surprises me most is the price of tickets for the Olympic Games,” Thiam told the Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure Les Sports. “We regularly talk about this topic in the media and it caught my attention because the Olympic Games continue to generate a lot of money, also in terms of ticket sales,” she concluded.
When asked about these criticisms, Estanguet acknowledged that: “It will not be easy to meet all expectations because demand is very high, but the price range is more or less in the same parameters as in previous Olympic Games.”
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