24% service fee adds to high prices of LA Olympics tickets

Fans who got the first shot at buying tickets in the general draw for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, beginning Thursday, were met by sticker shock and technology troubles.

People who preregistered and were selected for the ticket drop were notified when their slot was eligible to buy the tickets online. And some prospective buyers told local media that they received error messages, such as "access denied," when they attempted to buy.

Once the technology issues were solved and fans could shop for tickets, they found seats ranging from $28 to $5,519, according to a Front Office Sports report from Friday.

Per Front Office Sports, the organizing committee said nearly 50% of the tickets available cost less than $200, more than $75 were priced under $400 and about 5% were above $1,000.

In a statement to Front Office Sports from LA28, a spokesperson said prices were set after a review of "heavy analytics and extensive market demand research around entertainment and live sports in the U.S."

"Pricing is based on a variety of factors and heavily informed by what fans have told us, as well as venue capacity, type of session, seat location and historical demand," the spokesperson said. "The most expensive tickets represent a small portion of the overall inventory, and there are also accessibly priced options at these same sessions we know will draw headlines."

The prices also have a 24% service fee built in for processing and ticket delivery, LA28 said in the statement. In the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the service fee was 1.5%.

Adding to buyers' woes was the lack of available tickets. Some local residents who preregistered were given access to a presale last week, before the general public could buy, and had picked over the tickets, apparently.

Even those in the local draw were stunned by the prices. One, Sarah Maizes of Miracle Mile, told LAist she wanted to take her daughter to a gymnastics event but didn't buy any tickets.

"I understand tickets to events are expensive. I have paid for Taylor Swift tickets," Maizes said. "Here's the problem. The campaign made you feel like you had a shot at an insider deal because we are hosting the Olympics and this is our town ... and I'm looking at tickets online for $400 a person, $600 a person, $2,100."

While the organizing committee said more than 1 million tickets were available at the $28 price point, LAist reported that after a local presale last week, the only tickets remaining at that cost were for women's soccer matches and preliminary rounds of women's golf.

LA28 did announce this week that tickets to some events were unavailable because of high demand in the presale.

There are more planned sales, but LA28 has not announced when they will be or how many tickets will be up for grabs.

The Los Angeles Olympics are set for July 14-July 30, 2028. Venues are spread throughout Southern California as well as in Oklahoma City, where softball and canoe slalom events will be held.

--Field Level Media