Paris Olympics chaos as half a million tickets still unsold ahead of Games

At least 500,000 Paris Olympics tickets remain unsold with events such as Friday’s opening ceremony and the 100-metre finals set to play out in front of reduced crowds if seats are not filled. Less than a week remains before the Games get underway in the French capital.

A majority of the unsold tickets are for the football events. The men play in an U23 tournament, while nations send a full-strength senior squad for the women’s competition.

It is not uncommon for football to fail to sell out for events at the Olympics. However, The Times reports that there has been surprise over the number of tickets that remain for the more iconic Olympic sports.

As of Monday evening, Paris 2024’s ticket site showed plenty of availability for events including cycling, swimming, rowing, rugby sevens and gymnastics. There remain unsold tickets for Friday evening’s opening ceremony.

Pick up your ultimate guide to the Olympics! Going for Gold provides the day-by-day rundown of what's on and when. Click here to buy.

Tickets also remain available for the men’s and women’s 100m sprint finals. Both events usually sell out well in advance.

The athletics session scheduled for the evening of Sunday, August 4, will feature the men’s 100m race. Tickets priced between £249 and £825 are available to buy.

Meanwhile, tickets remain unsold for the evening session scheduled for Saturday, August 3. This slot will feature the women’s 100m event and prices are as low as £164.

At London 2012, around 250,000 tickets remained unsold by the end of the Games. There was considerably less interest in Rio 2016 where more than a million tickets were not picked up. Tokyo 2021 was heavily restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cheapest tickets for Friday’s opening ceremony have all been sold. Free tickets also went to people who wanted to watch from the bank of the River Seine, where the display is set to take place. Four-thousand tickets for the event are still available, though, priced between £757 and £1,010.

Tickets for Paris 2024 are actually cheaper than those dished out for the London Games 12 years ago, allowing for inflation. Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, has dismissed the idea that availability for previously popular events reflected diminished interest.

“We will remain prudent and between now and six months ago, we released new ticket opportunities,” he said.

“That’s why there are still tickets available one week before, because now we have the final plan of the delivery. We are now at 8.8 million tickets sold and we still have 500,000 to 600,000 tickets available.”