PARIS, France The online system for buying tickets to the upcoming Olympics in Paris was made to change the way people buy tickets and bring huge crowds to stadiums and arenas for as little as $26. The event’s organizers promised this to ensure “egalitarian” event access.
Many of the “lucky” winners who were able to buy the first 3 million tickets (out of 10 million total) during the first month of sales are now feeling frustrated, angry, and cheated because the only remaining events cost at least 200 euros ($212) each and sold out within 48 hours of the sale’s opening. Additionally, many customers spent thousands of dollars because the ticketing system requires purchasing packages for multiple sports.
When English teacher Amélie Beney and her 9-year-old son won the lottery last week to access the Olympic ticket office, most events had sold out, and tickets were prohibitively expensive.
Beney would need to purchase at least two tickets to two separate events in addition to the soccer game tickets, which were priced at 50 euros ($53). Tickets ranged in price from €150 ($160) for basketball or handball to €230 ($244) for swimming and a whopping €690 ($732) for a qualifying event in track and field.
At that price, who can go? Inquired Beney. “I can’t.”
Beney was dismayed because she and her son planned to spend their tenth birthday purchasing in honor of his interest in attending the home Olympics.
The organizers of the upcoming Paris Olympics say they are well aware of the high demand for tickets.
I was hoping desperately to get Olympic tickets. And I wanted him to have that experience here in our city,” Beney explained. I lost faith in the system and the prices after a while. Ridiculous.
You had to have your name picked from a hat to get tickets for the first round. Winners have been notified via email since February 13 that they have 48 hours to purchase three to thirty tickets to at least three of the 32 events for which tickets are being offered. First-round ticket sales end on March 15.
The organizers of the upcoming Paris Olympics say they are well aware of the high demand for tickets and realize that only some people who want to attend will be able to do so, especially at a reasonable price.
“We know that people are going to be disappointed, and we know that we don’t have tickets for everybody,” Michael Aloisio, the deputy general manager of the Paris Olympics; on the other hand, we anticipate the upcoming release of additional selling phases, each of which will feature a larger number of available tickets.
According to Aloisio, ticket sales make up one-third of the revenue Paris organizers need to pay for the Olympics.
“The challenge for us was to not have this target compromise our goal to make these Games accessible,” Aloisio said.
An announcement last year that 1 million tickets would be available for 24 euros ($26) and over 4 million for less than 50 euros ($53) was met with excitement by fans in France and around the world. They sold out quickly in the first few days of the lottery, leaving the “lucky” people drawn later with high prices and a limited selection of events.
Aloisio estimates that only one million of the ten million tickets sold were priced at more than 200 euros ($212).
“These tickets make other tickets more affordable and balance the scales,” he explained.
American “Olympics super fan” Robin Allison Davis, 38, said she wasn’t expecting to find a good deal when it came time to look for tickets to the events she was most interested in watching (gymnastics, swimming, and track and field).
To watch a two-hour gymnastics qualifying event, she was prepared to pay 260 euros paris($276) per ticket, but she became frustrated when the online ticketing office appeared to have transformed into a virtual casino.
“I knew it would be expensive, but why is the system that promised to give me freedom and choice to form my Olympic package tricking me into buying expensive tickets for sports? I don’t want to see if I want to get expensive tickets for an event I want to see,” Davis said. “This whole ticket bundle business is a sham.”
Davis has been a freelance journalist based in Paris for the past six and a half years. She did not purchase any tickets for the first round but plans to splurge on individual tickets for the second draw in May.
Committee member Aloisio defended the ticket package system, saying the Paris organizers wanted to spark interest in other sports.
Water polo, hockey, and 7-a-side rugby are all sports for which there may have been less demand, but Aloisio believes offering them ticket packages will help increase ticket sales.
Altogether, 10 million Olympic tickets and 3.4 million Paralympic tickets will be made available through the website. On May 11, there will be a second round of ticket sales where individuals can purchase tickets. The deadline to enter the draw is March 15.
The final phase, during which all remaining tickets will be sold, will begin by the year’s end.
SOURCE – (AP)
