It is not enough to be lucky enough to be drawn to benefit, before everyone else, from a wide choice of tickets. You still have to have the luxury of being able to buy them. This is essentially the message conveyed on social networks by hundreds of people who are disillusioned with the prices of tickets allowing them to attend events at the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. to organize “popular Games accessible to all”, the first experience of ticketing does not seem to be in accordance with this principle. And many Internet users seem to have already resolved to watch the events on television. Inspeed on RTL Wednesday, February 22, the president of the organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, nevertheless assured that the tickets on sale “were not more expensive than in London”, during the 2012 Games.
So let’s compare the prices offered in London in 2012 with those posted by Paris for 2024. In the British capital, the first tickets sold for around 24 euros, the same price as in Paris. There is one difference to note, however: the number of tickets available at this price rose to 2.5 million in London, whereas to date it is only one million in Paris.
The sale of these precious sesames being distributed over three sales sessions, those offered during the first stage very quickly left. On RTL, Tony Estanguet also declared that “fifteen disciplines offered tickets at around fifty euros”. However, having visited the sales site on Thursday, the author of these lines only found places at 30 euros for football (a discipline with a much greater capacity than the others) , and some at 70 euros for water polo or field hockey. The others exceed 90 euros.
A logic is clear: the more the sport is in demand, the higher the price. And sometimes more than in London. Thus, it is necessary to pay up to 150 euros to attend two basketball matches of the preliminary round, while Great Britain offered, at an equivalent price, two quarter-finals. Similarly, let’s count 150 euros in Paris to see a confrontation of the preliminary round between judokas of more than 100 kilos, against 100 euros in London. Target of criticism, gymnastics, a discipline in high demand, reaches the exorbitant cost of 260 euros for a first session, against 170 euros in London. As the different phases of sales progress, the price of tickets is likely to change – the infographic below is based on data consulted this Sunday, February 26.
If we take the high range, it is because ten days after the opening of the ticket office, the most affordable categories are no longer available. However, there are large price differences depending on the location. For a first round handball match, you have to pay 140 euros to be in the best visibility area (only 50 euros in London), or 150 euros to attend the fencing qualifications from category A (half less in 2012 ).
And if several disciplines offer similar prices between Paris and London (morning athletics sessions, field hockey qualification, canoe final, etc.), the French “tailor-made pack” rule poses a problem (single tickets will be , them, available from next May). It obliges any purchaser to position themselves on three sports at the same time and to buy, for each of them, the same number of tickets. For example, a family of four wishing to have four places to attend a swimming event will have to buy eight additional tickets, divided equally between two disciplines, to validate their basket.
Tony Estanguet, in his explanation, could have mentioned the price of tickets to the Tokyo Olympics, higher than those in Paris, but the closed session decreed due to the Covid-19 pandemic finally prevented the ticket office from opening. As for the Rio Olympics, in 2016, much more affordable tickets were offered, but it is difficult to compare them with Paris, as the standards of living of the two populations differ so much (in 2020, the average annual salary was 5,784 euros in Brazil, against 31,682 euros in France). The parallel with London therefore remains a good way to realize that the organizing committee is counting on the sale of tickets to fit into its budget.