Residents of Los Angeles received yet another slap in the face as their hopes of getting a discount for purchasing tickets to the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games to be held in the City of Angels were dashed to pieces by the extremely high prices being offered during the “presale ticket lottery” that was held between the dates of April 2-5, 2026.
Lorraine Ali, a contributor for the Los Angeles Times, penned a piece that looked into how LA28 and city officials misled local residents into believing that they would be provided with first crack at the tickets at a fair price for the once-in-a-lifetime event set to take place in their city. Ali noted that the LA28 committee described the Olympic Games as a much-needed boon for city inhabitants.
“‘Creating the Games together!’ Mayor Karen Bass promoted a ‘Games for All’ vision. And we’ve been told over and over that tickets to events would start as low as $28, the 24% ticketing fee included!” Ali wrote of the event. “The presale ticket lottery for those residing in ZIP Codes around LA28 venues also meant we would have a fair shake at getting into the Games, right?”
“Finally, an affordable way into a major L.A. sporting event for those of us who are not Casey Wasserman, the multimillionaire chairman of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” she continued, according to Breitbart News. However, residents soon discovered these were nothing but empty promises.
The presale lottery went live on Thursday, April 2, 2026. However, major events like artistic gymnastics were marked as “unavailable,” along with tickets to the opening ceremony. Those interested in swimming events were stunned to see tickets on sale for $1,116.27 per seat. However, those were cheap compared to tickets for the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which went for $4,961.20 a piece.
The lower-priced seats were mostly for preliminary events, with very few offerings for finals or medal events. “By Monday, there were only a handful of events accessible for less than $150 a ticket (handball, women’s cricket, Judo). The women’s basketball bronze-medal game started at $407.17 a ticket,” wrote Ali. The only “free” option available to see the Olympic Games is to volunteer to work at the event without pay.
As if that wasn’t enough, local residents were also subjected to extremely high “service fees.” Lori Rovner, a resident of Manhattan Beach, spoke with the press, saying that she finally got her 16 tickets that originally cost $2,100 only to have the final tally come out to be $2,604.63 because of a whopping $504.63 in service fees.
"*" indicates required fields
“It’s insane,” Rovner told reporters. “I don’t understand what the service is.” Folks took to social media to express their displeasure with the high cost of tickets, pointing out price differences for locals between Paris24 and LA28. “#LA28 truly bungled the local sale. Advertising $28 tickets but by the time most windows opened (mine included) there was nothing for under $500 with fees. The working class family of 4 that logged on last night was out of luck despite the inconvenience they’ll deal with in 2 yrs,” one user wrote.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video