LA 2028 Olympics Ticket Prices Draw Backlash as Residents Face Steep Costs and Fees

Excitement turned to frustration for many Los Angeles residents this month as the LA 2028 Olympics presale ticket lottery revealed prices that left a sour taste. LA28 set aside a wave of slots for southern California and Oklahoma City residents beginning April 2, but the reality of what was available proved far different from the advertised starting price of $28.

The cheap tickets were gone almost immediately. Kathy Dorn, a Los Angeles resident who registered for the lottery, told The Guardian she logged on the morning of April 3 expecting to find affordable options for gymnastics and track and field. She found the opposite.

Most gymnastics tickets sold out during my time slot, she said. I did not expect them to be gone that quickly. Overall, I found the prices quite high, and it did not seem like they released additional inventory for people with later time slots.

Dorn ultimately spent roughly $1,200 on tickets to the rhythmic and artistic gymnastics preliminaries and the sailing finals. She had wanted to attend a swimming event as well but balked when she saw $558 per ticket for a two-hour session. The price was simply too much.

Another LA resident told NBC Los Angeles he spent $11,000 on eight tickets for track and field events, with nearly $400 of that attributable to a 24 percent service fee added at checkout. LA28 has said that fee is intended to cover customer service operations during the Games.

It is a choice, the buyer, Tony Anthony, told NBC. We did not go top-tier, but we were in the $1,000 range per ticket. You hear things like: Tickets as low as $28 and there were none available.

Reynold Hoover, chief executive of the LA Olympics, defended the pricing in a statement, noting that hundreds of thousands of the $28 tickets were sold to LA and Oklahoma City residents and calling them the lowest priced Olympic tickets in modern history.

LA28 has a $7.1 billion budget and has said ticket revenue is essential to ensuring the Games operate at zero cost to the city and taxpayer dollars, a departure from recent Olympics in Greece and Brazil that left host cities with significant financial burdens.

Gigi Gutierrez, an LA28 spokesperson, told NBC Los Angeles that premium event tickets for swimming and soccer were in line with comparable major events like the Super Bowl and the forthcoming World Cup. The Games are scheduled to take place across southern California and Oklahoma City in July and August 2028.