© REUTERS
Nearly 3.25 million tickets have been sold for the 2024 Paris Olympics during the first phase of sales. Sales started more than a month ago. President of the organizing committee Tony Estanguet spoke of a success on Thursday and again defended his pricing policy, after controversy over too high prices.
Source: BELGA
The first phase offered nearly a third of the 10.5 million tickets for the 2024 Games in a package deal of at least three tickets (up to 30).
Of those 3.25 million tickets, almost 13 percent were sold for 24 euros, 70 percent for less than 100 euros and 4.5 percent for more than 200 euros, the organization clarified. “That gives a good picture of the distribution,” said chairman Estanguet. Two thirds of the buyers are French, but in total people from 158 countries bought tickets.
After the launch of the first sales phase on February 15, criticism appeared on social media about the sometimes prohibitive prices of certain tickets. For example, tickets for the athletics qualifications could cost 690 euros.
This tension jeopardized the predetermined objective of “popular Games”. The organization had to answer for the fuss. She reminded the audience that one million tickets would be on sale for €24 and five million tickets for €50 or less.
The second sales phase, for individual tickets this time, will be launched on March 15 with a new draw. 1.5 million tickets are on sale. Those interested can buy tickets for the opening ceremony on the Seine, with ticket prices between 90 and 2,700 euros, and for the closing ceremony.