5 million people registered for 2028 Olympics tickets. Winners learn fate this week. – The New York Times

Olympics
Let the ticket Games begin. Frederic J. Brown / Getty Images
Endless virtual queues.
High prices.
Millions of frustrated fans.
Those hazards have plagued the ticketing process for this summer’s World Cup over the past two years and the organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are desperate to avoid them.
That process begins in earnest Tuesday, when the first group of 5 million people who have registered for a chance to buy the first tranche of some 14 million tickets to everything from swimming to softball to skateboarding will find out if they have been selected for first dibs.
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“That’s more than five million people who raised their hands and said, ‘I want to be in Los Angeles in 2028,’” said Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 senior vice president for Games delivery revenue. “That number really speaks to the global excitement for these games and for what Los Angeles represents as a host city.”
Katz-Mayfield and her team have set up a system for ticket purchase and distribution that is simple and complex all at once.
The first wrinkle is that locals will be getting first dibs. Everyone who finds out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week that they can buy tickets will live in counties in the Los Angeles region or in Oklahoma City, which is hosting the softball tournament. This initial pre-sale will be open just to them from April 2-6.
The remaining lucky registrants among the 5 million registrants will find out on April 7. Everyone will get a time slot to begin trying to buy tickets. They will have a 48-hour window to make a purchase. That way, people don’t have to move a doctor’s appointment or find someone to babysit for their children while they buy tickets.
The appetite for tickets is expected to be robust coming out of the highly successful Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 and Northern Italy earlier this year.
In a statement, Reynold Hoover, LA28 CEO,  said organizers have been “thrilled to see the outpouring of enthusiasm from fans all around the world, and we’re counting down the final days to people being able to secure their tickets to history.”
Whether that enthusiasm holds through the ticket-buying process remains to be seen. Technological snafus, sticker shock and getting shut out of tickets to the most sought-after games combined to sour countless soccer fans on the World Cup.
During this initial sale, people will be limited to buying 12 tickets to all events other than soccer and 12 additional tickets to soccer games.
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Organizers did not specify how many tickets they will make available or how many people will be given the opportunity to participate in the initial sale, which will include a limited number of tickets at every price point and for every sport.
“Some fans want the absolute best seat for a specific once-in-a-lifetime experience. Others just want to be part of the magic in some way,” Katz-Mayfield said.
There will be 1 million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price. Prime seats for the most in-demand events will go into the thousands. About 5 percent of the tickets cost over $1,000. About 25 percent cost more than $400. About half of all tickets cost less than $200.
For those who missed the initial registration, additional registrations and sales will be held later this year.
Also, there will be a resale market beginning next year exclusively through LA28’s Official Secondary Ticket Marketplace, managed by AXS and Eventim, and through other verified resale platforms, including Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets. Organizers warned that any tickets advertised for resale on other sites may not be legitimate.
Let the ticket Games begin.
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Matthew Futterman is an award-winning, veteran sports journalist and the author of the forthcoming book, “The Cruelest Game: Chasing Greatness in Professional Tennis,” to be published by Doubleday in 2026. He has written two other books, “Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” and “Players: How Sports Became a Business.” Before coming to The Athletic in 2023, he worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Follow Matthew on Twitter @mattfutterman

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