Olympic ticket sales for Paris Games get off to rocky start
PARIS (AP) — Organizers of next year’s Paris Olympics promised relatively modest prices and egalitarian access to events, thanks to an online system meant to revolutionize ticket sales and bring the masses to stadiums and arenas for as little as $26.
As the month-long opening round of sales winds down, however, many “lucky” winners chosen to shop for the first 3 million tickets (out of 10 million total) are feeling frustrated, angry and cheated.
Their only option during the 48-hour purchasing window was paying at least 200 euros ($212) per ticket for the few remaining events on offer. And because the new ticketing system requires buying packages for multiple sports, overall costs for many buyers ran into thousands of dollars.
By the time English teacher Amélie Beney and her 9-year-old son won the lottery last week to log in to the Olympic ticket office, affordable tickets for many events were gone, and all but one of their preferred sports — BMX, water polo and soccer — was sold out.
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-tickets-paris-2024-games-sales-1f8f848ce6b764b1d4fb902d1a7ec79a