Tickets: How to Purchase Tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games
Note: This article is constantly updated as information changes and is updated. Bookmark it now for future reference.
While we are still almost 20 months from the start of the Olympic Summer Games in Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024, it is never too early to start your planning as many others have. As you have already probably discovered, one of the most important steps in planning for your trip to the Olympics is of course the main attractions — the sporting events and the tickets you need to attend them! Starting early will provide you the most opportunities to obtain the tickets you want, as Paris 2024 demand is expected to be the highest ever for an Olympics.
In this article, which is part of my Ultimate Guide to the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games, I will cover:
- Olympic Summer Games Ticketing in General
- Historic Ticketing Processes on how to get tickets
- What is changing with Paris 2024?
- How is ticketing going to work for Paris 2024?
- When can I purchase tickets for Paris 2024?
- What about packages and hospitality?
- Are there other ways to get tickets for Paris 2024?
Recently there has much news about Paris 2024 tickets and the event. This ticketing processes starts on December and with that kicks off the first of several sales phases that run all the way through the event in the summer of 2024.
Before we get to the details, remember that obtaining your dream tickets to the Olympics is often a marathon not a sprint. You will have numerous opportunities to obtain the ticket you really want to Paris 2024.
This article is part of my Ultimate Guide to the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. For more information on Paris 2024 planning, please go here: https://medium.com/road-to-paris/ultimate-guide-to-paris-2024-your-roadmap-to-the-summer-games-in-paris-france-de09a4535fe9
Olympic Summer Games Ticketing in General
Here are some quick facts about ticketing for Paris 2024:
- There will be approximately 10 million tickets for Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games and 3.4 million tickets for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Summer Games
- Prices for the Paris 2024 Olympics range from EUR 24 to EURO 950, excluding Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony. 1 million tickets will be at the lowest
- Prices for the Paris 2024 Paralympics start at EUR 15
- There will be at least 4 phases of ticket sales
- There will be a resale site where you can sell tickets you cannot use, or possibly buy tickets that others are unable to use at face value through Paris 2024.
- All tickets will be mobile-only, electronic tickets. No paper tickets will be available.
Historic Ticketing Processes on how to get tickets
If you have been to an Olympics event before, you may be familiar with how Summer and Winter Games ticketing processes used to work. This is important to understand as much of this has changed and we are in an entirely new world when it comes to ticketing, which has a lot of advantages and a couple of disadvantages that we will walk through. First, let’s start with how ticketing historically worked.
In past Summer Games, there was a separation between the group that organized the Olympic Games, also know as an Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) and all the countries that participated in the Olympics. (Over the next couple of year you may hear the term Paris Organizing Committee) What this meant is there was one set of technologies and process for residents of country where the Games occurred, for example Rio / Brazil and then another set of technologies and processes for the rest of the world that varied country by country.
For example, in the United States all residents were required to go through a 3rd party, known as an authorized ticket reseller (ATR) which handled all of the tickets, hospitality and packages. The 3rd party for the United States was Jet Set Sports / Cosport and as part of their services they would charge an additional 20% on top of the ticket prices as was authorized by the OCOG. In addition, there was often times a fixed exchange rate for the currency transfer since tickets are sold in the currency of the hosting country and you purchased in your local currency that often times could lead to significant fluctuation in the prices of tickets you would by through an ATR vs. the committee.
Still, there were key benefits to going through an Authorized Ticket Reseller, mainly that there was a specific allocation to your country and ultimately you were competing with a smaller number of fans for the same tickets rather than the entire world. This was a particular large advantage for fans in Europe, with the single market were allowed to by tickets from any country in the European Union. If you were a fan a particular sport and your country’s allocation was up, you could go to the authorized ticket seller of another country where perhaps that sport was less popular and still be able to get your tickets.
What is changing with Paris 2024?
In short, everything is changing for Paris 2024.
The authorized ticket reseller model is no more, all tickets will come from one of two sources:
- The Paris 2024 Organizing Committee (POCOG / COJO)
- On Location Experiences — the exclusive hospitality provider of the Olympic Games for Paris 2024
Many experienced Olympic fans who have attended the Games in the past undoubtedly are cheering for the end of the authorized ticket reseller model and the modernization of Olympic ticketing as it means that there will no longer be a 20% service fee and an additional handling fee tacked on top of your ticket prices. In addition, some of the service issues during the games time including long lines will be a thing of the past. That is great news for most fans.
The only downside may be that instead of competing with other residents from your country, you will now be competing with the entire world for tickets. Now while that may seem daunting, and visions may go through your head of trying to get tickets for an Adele or Taylor Swift concert — remember that the acquiring your tickets for the Olympic Games is a marathon, not a sprint.
How is ticketing going to work for Paris 2024?
If everything is changing, how is ticketing going to work for Paris 2024? The good news is that the ticket process is going to look very familiar to you if you have bought tickets for anything in the past. But before we get to that, let go into contextual detail that will prepare you for the various phases.
First, Paris 2024 is expected to be the first 100% digitally ticketed Olympics all centralized on a single platform. While most people are familiar with digital tickets and use them today, I find that it is met with disappointment as many like to keep their Olympic tickets as souvenir mementos to remember their experiences at a Summer Games. Paris 2024 will be entirely digital, but it has not be declared whether or not there will be NFTs or souvenir tickets that can be ordered or printed. Should the decision be made, this article will be updated to reflect that.
The ticketing technology provider for the Paris 2024 Summer Games is Eventim, through their ownership in FNAC Tickets. This is good news for Olympic fans on a number of fronts, for those who are not familiar with Eventim they are one of the largest providers of ticketing systems internationally (comparable with Ticketmaster), have a local presence in France, and have previous ticketed other Summer Games like Rio 2016 where two innovations of the first electronic (PDF) tickets and the first fan-to-fan resale sites were successfully launched.
Olympic ticketing allocations generally follow a similar pattern for each Olympics and we should expect a similar patter to be followed for Paris 2024:
- Up to 70% of tickets are allocated for residents of the country that is hosting the Olympics, in this case France.
- Up to 20% of tickets are allocated for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Sponsors, National Olympic Committes (NOCs), International Federations (IFs) and the Olympic Family.
- Up to 10% of tickets are allocated to the rest of the world.
The pattern has been similar for the last several Olympic games with some smaller variances between the allocation groups.
Do I get to choose my seats?
Great question, purchasing tickets in earlier phases of sale you do not pick the specific seats that you are sitting in, rather you pick a category of seating usually A-D for most events and somethings for larger events there are E tickets. As you might have guessed, the better and more expensive seats in the event are the “Category A” tickets with the less expensive and further away tickets being Category D/E. In later phases of sale and in the fan-to-fan ticket exchanges, you may have the ability to see the actual section / row / seat that you will be sitting.
When can I purchase tickets for Paris 2024?
Ok, let’s get down to it. When and how will you be able to purchase your event tickets to Paris 2024?
Great question, let’s run through the various stages that are currently confirmed and discuss each of those stages and what will happen. Here are the 3 phases of sales:
- Ticket Lottery — December 2022
- Ticket Packs on sale — February 2023
- Single Tickets on sale — May 2023
- Remaining Tickets on sale — End of 2023
With Olympic tickets, not all tickets go on sale at once — part of it is intentional, the other part of is that not all seating and venues are 100% finalized to provide flexibility and make sure you are not sold tickets that do not exist!
This is why I always say Olympic ticketing is a marathon, not a sprint. In fact, to this point in my Olympic — I personally have never “won” the ability to purchase tickets in the lottery phase(s) and have obtained almost all of my tickets through the later phases of sales. This is to say — if you get shut out in the lottery phase of ticket sales, do not be discouraged. You still have many opportunities to get the tickets you want.
Phase 1 — Ticket Lottery & Ticket Packs on sale.
For the first phase for Paris 2024, will be a lottery or a draw stage. This stage opens on December 1, 2022 at which time you will go to the Paris 2024 ticketing website (https://www.paris2024.org/en/tickets) register your interest for the opportunity to win “ticket packs” or a set of multiple events in a given sport that you can purchase if you are selected. This is expected to be a worldwide, random draw. Once the draw is complete, if you are selected you will have the opportunity to purchase your tickets in February of 2023.
Phase 2 — Single Tickets Lottery and on sale
There will be a second lottery phase not for ticket packs, but for individual tickets, which will be very similar to Phase 1, but specifically for individual tickets. Both lottery draws tend to be significant numbers of tickets with plenty remaining for the final phase.
What to know more about the Paris 2024 Ticket Lottery? Go here to see my detailed article on the lottery process: https://medium.com/road-to-paris/what-is-the-paris-2024-ticket-lottery-and-how-do-i-win-tickets-bc04b277991c
Phase 3 — Open Sales
This is the phase that I consider the open sales phase and this is where you have the opportunity to individually select from tickets that are available. It is important to note that while this phase starts in late 2023, there will be many, many phases of ticket releases at the beginning of this phase through the Olympic Games.
At the launch of this phase, there is usually a large number of tickets that are available, but then throughout the next months there will be many other releases of tickets, some that will be announced and some that will not be announced. This is why it is important to remain vigilant and keep checking as well as following me on twitter (https://twitter.com/kenhanscom) and consider joining a Facebook group like this one (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1365645203610663) where news of new tickets travels fast.
Because of such a large ticketing program of over 10 million tickets, tickets are frequently released as news from Olympic stakeholders — sponsors, individual countries, and others determine which of their allocations they are able to use and which they are not. In addition, early in 2024 it is expected that Paris 2024 will launch a fan-to-fan exchange where you can sell tickets that you cannot use and potentially buy tickets at face value without the exorbitant fees that are often on secondary marketplace and resale sites.
This is the longest phase with the most opportunity for you to secure you tickets.
Will there be ticketing booths in France for Paris 2024? At this point, no information on ticket booths is available and all tickets are to be purchased online. Stay tuned in case this changes.
What about packages and hospitality?
If all the above sounds like a nuisance to you and you do not have budget constraints, then packages and hospitality options are for you.
On Location Experiences (https://olympics.onlocationexp.com/paris2024/) is the exclusive hospitality provider for the Paris 2024 Olympics. (and Milan-Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028) While they are only accepting registrations for interest now, they are expected to have significant availability of tickets + hospitality (in/out of venue) and packages (tickets + hospitality + accommodations + experiences). They will be more costly than pulling an itinerary together yourself, but their availability will be unmatched for Paris 2024.
Beware of any other company selling tickets and hospitality as they may not be authorized by either the International Olympic Committee or Paris 2024. If they are, it also means they have obtained their tickets through On Location Experiences which means you will be paying an additional markup.
Are there other ways to get tickets for Paris 2024?
Yes, there are other ways that you can secure you tickets to Paris 2024 — here are a few of them:
Sponsors:
Do you work for or work with one of the sponsors of Paris 2024 or the IOC? If so, many companies do operate their own hospitality programs in partnership with Paris 2024 or On Location Experiences where they take their best customers and guests to the event, often times at no cost! Other companies make their extra tickets available to employees at cost so they can purchase directly and attend events.
National Olympic Committees, Federations, and Olympic Family organizations:
Several organizations offer hospitality programs for those who are participants or donors of organizations. If you have interest in donating and supporting any of these organization, reach out and have a conversation about what donor programs they offer for Paris 2024. For example, in the United States our Olympic Committee’s foundation, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation (USOPF) has a very robust set of programs and opportunities that vary based on your giving. Definitely check those out for other ways to get tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
One way you will definitely want to avoid is purchasing from ticket resellers, also known as secondary marketplaces such as Viagogo, Vivid Seats, Stubhub, and many others. Olympic tickets are often tightly controlled with very specific language about the resale of tickets. Not only will these tickets be well above face value, but they may also be subject to cancellation which could leave you without a ticket to your most coveted event. An experience you want to avoid at all costs!
Here are ways to stay connected on the latest information about Paris 2024 ticketing:
Subscribe to me on Medium (above).
Paris 2024 Planning & Preparation Group on Facebook where veteran Olympic travelers share tips, tricks, and answer questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/579595599093246/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KenHanscom
About Ken Hanscom
Ken Hanscom is a veteran-fan of the Olympic Games and the recognized expert in ticketing, corporate sponsorships, traveling to and experiencing the Olympic Games.
In his role as COO at TicketManager, during Rio 2016 & PyeongChang 2018, Ken worked directly with the United States Olympic Committee, NBC Universal, Anheuser-Busch, & Cartan Tours the authorized ticket reseller for 23 countries across the globe on their ticketing & corporate hospitality programs. While in Rio & PyeongChang, Ken was featured in Primetime on NBC’s Olympic Zone with Natalie Morales and has attended hundreds of events during Olympic Games while guest blogging for the International Business Times, writing for USA Today, The Post Game, and appearing on ESPN Radio.
Ken and his wife Ashley are trustees of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation (USOPF) and plan to spend a month in Paris during Summer Games and look forward to meeting many of you.
For more information and interviews with Ken on the Olympics and the upcoming Paris 2024 Summer Games, connect via Twitter or directly at kenh@ticketmanager.com.
Search terms that led to this story:
buy paris 2024 tickets
where to buy olympic tickets
buy olympic tickets
olympia 2024 tickets
summer olympics 2024 usa
where to buy summer olympics tickets
how to buy paris 2024 tickets
how to purchase paris 2024 tickets
olympic games
2024 paris olympics tickets
summer olympics tickets
olympic tickets 2024
paris 2024 olympics
the olympic games
paris olympics tickets
summer olympic games
paris olympics 2024
next summer olympics 2024
paris 2024 opening ceremony tickets
next olympics 2024
paris 2024 tickets
summer olympics
paris 2024 olympics tickets
olympic events
paris 2024 olympic games
2024 summer olympics tickets
2024 olympic games tickets
tickets to 2024 paris olympics
paris olympics 2024 tickets
the summer game
olympic event
2024 summer olympics
summer games
