Miss out on the first round of ticket sales for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles?
Sign-ups for the next opportunity to buy tickets are underway through July 22. But just registering for what organizers of the world’s next Olympics are calling a ticket draw doesn’t guarantee fans will have a chance to buy seats when they go on sale again in August.
That’s because only randomly selected fans are able to participate in a ticket drop. Those chosen will be notified by email and assigned a specific window of time to purchase up to a dozen tickets to Olympic events while the rest will be automatically entered in a future ticket draw.
The process is confusing enough that the organizing committee, known as LA28, has posted a video on YouTube just to explain how to fill out the initial registration form. A separate video, “How To Navigate The LA28 Ticket Website,” lasts nearly five minutes.
Still, more than 4 million tickets have been sold, during a presale earlier this month to Angelenos and others living near Olympic venues in California and Oklahoma, where canoe slalom and softball competitions will be held, as well as participants in the initial ticket draw.
LA28 organizers are promising a “refreshed inventory across all Olympic sports at a range of price points” will be available in August, and touting that 95% of first-round tickets priced under $100 have been sold, including roughly 500,000 at $28 that went to locals in the presale.
There have been numerous complaints about the ticket sales, ranging from issues with the online site to a 24% fee that’s been described as in alignment “with standard industry practices” for live events, as well as general sticker shock over prices.
Just “OK” seats at the Opening Ceremony would have cost a family of four more than $10,000, Alberto Belli, an LA-based director, posted earlier this month on X, adding, “Guess I’m watching from the couch.”
What a U.S. Olympic official says about LA28 ticket sales
Gene Sykes, chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and a member of the International Olympic Committee, told reporters recently that LA organizers “have taken great efforts to make sure that tickets are available at all prices,” including a million at $28.
Sykes, who led LA’s successful Olympic bid, also said after a midmonth meeting of the USOPC board that members were encouraged to hear about the first round of ticket sales, noting the number of registrations has not been made public but is “incredibly impressive.”
Games organizers “are thinking very seriously about how to manage the ticket activity so that it satisfies everyone,” Sykes said, adding they discussed the issues being raised “in great detail” with the USOPC board.
“I think they have really planned for this quite well,” he said. “We’re pleased with the progress that we understand. We know that they have to make sure that the community understands the answers to all the questions.”