'270,000 Resale Tickets Only'... Concerns Over Paris Olympics' Poor Box Office Performance

Results of Selling a Set of 3 Events
Some Soccer Matches Raise Concerns About No Audience

With the Paris Olympics set to open on the 26th (local time), concerns over poor ticket sales are growing as the number of resale tickets has increased to about 270,000.

On the 23rd, the UK’s Financial Times (FT) reported that the Paris Olympics is facing a problem of unsold and accumulating tickets. Analyzing the official Paris Olympics resale site, FT found that the number of resale tickets, which was about 180,000 a month ago, had risen to 271,637 as of that day. This means that the number of tickets on the market increased by more than 90,000 as the opening approached.

[Photo by AFP Yonhap News]

Earlier, the organizing committee for this event sold tickets only in sets that bundled three sports events together. Even if spectators wanted to watch only one sport, they had to purchase tickets for the other two sports as well. This led to complaints from buyers, and the organizing committee opened an official site where unwanted tickets could be resold.

However, sales through the resale site were lower than expected. This was because there were still many Olympic tickets unsold and available without having to buy through the resale site. Tony Estanguet, chairman of the Paris Olympic organizing committee, said on the 21st, "In addition to the tickets listed on the resale site, there are still hundreds of thousands of tickets remaining." In fact, on the official sales site, it is easy to obtain about 4,000 tickets for the opening ceremony on the 26th starting from 900 euros, and tickets for popular events such as the men's 100m final are still available. Although tickets on the resale site are supposed to be sold at face value, buyers must pay an additional 10% fee. Therefore, there is no strong reason for buyers to purchase tickets through the resale site.

In particular, FT reported that 80,000 of the tickets being sold on the resale site are for soccer matches. This has raised concerns that some matches might be played without spectators.

Meanwhile, the Paris Olympic organizing committee evaluated that the ticket sales method of bundling tickets in sets of three was a great success, achieving a record sales volume of 8.85 million tickets. However, FT reported that airlines and hotels, worried about the unexpectedly sluggish Paris Olympics, are lowering prices they had previously raised.