Most Recently Updated July 29, 2026

I decided to put my Visa Presale time slot to good use and compile a list of ticket prices since I decided not to get any tickets (more on why I didn’t and my thoughts on the pricing at the end).

There’s some general Olympic ticket information along with LA28 specific ticket information and logistics if you need.

The ticket prices list is as broad and comprehensive as time allowed as I could only look during my time slot. A majority of the Olympic sports are covered and I did ensure that the most popular ones (Artistic Gymnastics, Athletics, Basketball, Swimming) are listed. Sports are listed alphabetically to make it easier to search (via the Table of Contents) and did include men’s and women’s games if applicable.

To keep things manageable and to help highlight variations, rather than trying to get info every session, a Preliminary, Round of 16/Quarterfinal/ and Gold Medal/Final Sessions (as applicable) for each sport is listed along. Note that the 24% service fee is included in the prices you see

IMPORTANT NOTE: This will be a work in progress as I need to add in the seat maps photos and some additional information!

As always, I hope that this helps you plan and budget for your LA28 tickets and trip!

What To Know About Buying Olympic Tickets

Zoned Selling, Not Seat Mapping

If you have never bought a ticket for a large international sporting event, this one is very different from what you are used to. You purchase color-coded price categories (Categories A, B, C, and D) rather than picking out specific sections, rows, or seat numbers.

Delayed Assignments

Yes this does mean that you are paying blindly upfront for a ticket in a price category versus a specific seat. LA28 will assign your physical row and seat numbers weeks or days before the event begins – they will attempt to group multi-ticket transactions together as closely as possible.

Why They Do This (And Why Speed Matters)

International governing bodies use this method to account for dynamic venue modifications. For example, if LA28 needs to adjust the size of the media press box or needs to move camera platforms at SoFi Stadium, they can shift physical seats around without issuing thousands of refunds.

Because of this, your checkout strategy is based on speed: this type of purchase does not require endless scrutinization of a seat map. Pick your letter category, click add-to-cart, and let the automated system hold the inventory for you.

Seating Exceptions

Hospitality Packages

These are a lot higher priced but do come with the benefit of knowing where your seats are – along with having the hospitality package.

Last-Minute Ticket Sales

Paris2024 began to release ‘last minute tickets sales’ on their official ticketing site about a month before the games began every Thursday at 10 AM (local time).

About a week and half before the games began, they began to release daily and at that time, the tickets were issued with seating information. I can positively confirm that info since that’s when I bought tickets.

On the official re-sale site (once the original tickets were issued), those last-minute re-sale tickets did include seating information.

Pros for this approach is that if you are like me and highly value where you are seated, that you can make informed decisions. BUT even with knowing where the tickets are – with new stadiums (SoFi will be transformed to 2028 Stadium, that it can be tricky to figure out exactly where your tickets are). I had this issue when getting Eiffel Tower Beach Volley tickets and even for Athletics!

There are also many cons to this as it requires quite a bit of luck with tickets even being released and being able to snag them. Additionally the 24% service fee is a tough one and will likely be higher in the official re-sale site and it appears that LA28 will allow tickets to be listed on other re-sale sites (which will push prices unbelievably higher for popular events)

LA28 Logistics

Venues

Explore the venues and zones 

Logistics matter but even moreso for large scale events like the Olympics. Driving in Los Angeles can be rough during the best of times so that is definitely something to take into account.

I would urge caution if you are planning on attending more than two events in a day but if you do, choose very large gaps in times between the two sessions. And give yourself lots of time between the events – you are likely to underestimate how long it will take between getting in and out of venues (security and just dealing with large masses of people) and getting to venues (driving, parking and walking).

Ticket Maximum

Be aware of the 12-ticket maximum per account across all sports and sessions (including if you buy for friends and family!). There are the following exceptions

• The Football (Soccer) Exception: Soccer matches are completely separate. You get 12 general tickets PLUS 12 football tickets.
• The Ceremony Exception: The exception here means ceremonies have a stricter sub-cap. You cannot use your 12-ticket limit to buy 12 Opening Ceremony tickets; you can only buy up to 4 per ceremony per account. Important those 4 still count against your overall 12-ticket maximum

Your ticket limits are cumulative across all ticket drops. If you already bought 4 tickets during an earlier phase, those 4 tickets remain permanently counted against your 12-ticket Total during the current Visa Presale and the upcoming August Drop 2 windows!

TICKET PRICES

What LA28 Said Re: Ticket Pricing

• Ticket prices scale drastically based on the popularity of the sport, the stage of competition, and the venue seating tier.
  • Entry Level: $28 flat across more than 1 million total tickets, mostly found in the upper tiers of preliminary rounds (e.g., beach volleyball, rugby, archery) with tickets being sold out immediately in this price category.
  • Mid-Tier (Most Sports): Nearly 50% of all tickets are under $200, and over three-quarters are under $400, covering a mix of premium preliminaries and various medal finals.
  • Marquee Events: Finals for high-demand sports like gymnastics, track & field, and swimming range from $100 to well over $1,000 (it is dramatically higher!)
  • Ceremonies: High-demand opening and closing ceremonies climb into the thousands, with premium seats capping out over $5,000.

Ceremonies

3×3 Basketball

• VENUE: Valley Complex 3 LOS ANGELES, CA

Archery

• VENUE: Carson Stadium CARSON, CA

Athletics

• VENUE: LA Memorial Coliseum LOS ANGELES, CA

Artistic Gymnastics – Men’s

• VENUE: DTLA Arena LOS ANGELES, CA

Artistic Gymnastics – Women’s

• VENUE: DTLA Arena LOS ANGELES, CA

Badmitton

• VENUE: Galen Center LOS ANGELES, CA

Baseball

• VENUE: Dodger Stadium LOS ANGELES, CA

Basketball – Men’s

• VENUE: Intuit Dome INGLEWOOD, CA

Basketball – Women’s

• VENUE: Intuit Dome INGLEWOOD, CA

Beach Volleyball

• VENUE: Alamitos Beach Stadium LONG BEACH, CA

Boxing

• VENUE: Peacock Theater LOS ANGELES, CA
• Ticket Category Map to Come

Cricket – Men’s

• VENUE: Fairgrounds Cricket Stadium POMONA, CA
• Ticket Category Map to Come

Cricket – Women’s

• VENUE: Fairgrounds Cricket Stadium POMONA, CA
• Ticket Category Map to Come

Diving

• VENUE: Rose Bowl Aquatics Center PASADENA, CA

Equestrian

• VENUE: Santa Anita Park ARCADIA, CA

Football – Women’s

Golf

• VENUE: Riviera Country Club LOS ANGELES, CA
• Ticket Category Map to Come
• NOTE: Category A & B – Standing Room Only

Handball – Men’s

• VENUE: Long Beach Arena LONG BEACH, CA

Handball – Women’s

• VENUE: Long Beach Arena LONG BEACH, CA

Judo

• VENUE: LA Convention Center Hall 2 LOS ANGELES, CA

Rowing

• VENUE: Long Beach Arena LONG BEACH, CA

Sailing

• VENUE: Belmont Beach LONG BEACH, CA
• Ticket Category Map to Come
• NOTE: Category A – Standing Room Only

• VENUE: Port of Los Angeles SAN PEDRO, CA
• Ticket Category Map to Come
• NOTE: Category A & B – Standing Room Only

Shooting

Skateboarding

• VENUE: Valley Complex 1 LOS ANGELES, CA

• VENUE: Valley Complex 2 LOS ANGELES, CA

Swimming

• VENUE: 2028 Stadium INGLEWOOD, CA

Tennis

Volleyball – Men’s

• VENUE: Honda Center ANAHEIM, CA

Volleyball – Women’s

• VENUE: Honda Center ANAHEIM, CA

Water Polo – Men’s

• VENUE: Long Beach Aquatics Center LONG BEACH, CA

Water Polo – Women’s

• VENUE: Long Beach Aquatics Center LONG BEACH, CA

Why Didn’t I Get Tickets for LA28?

First, with the Visa Presale being so close from when the World Cup 26 finished and with the Olympics starting in two years, I couldn’t commit to buying any tickets (I know myself and propensity to change travel plans especially those far off in the future).

And quite honestly, so much of it was quite a bit of price shock and also a bit of disgust mixed in made it impossible for me to complete a ticket purchase.

After attending Paris2024 (and almost attending Milan 2026 winter Olympics) and seeing how they priced tickets made me realize that as all my international friends have been telling me, I had been used to an American pricing system. We aren’t outraged by 24% service fees (or at least enough to not buy tickets or try to get the system changed) nor do we find it outrageous how tickets are priced.

LA28 ticket prices scale drastically based on the popularity of the sport, the stage of competition, and the venue seating tiers which for many of us, we would say ‘okay makes total sense to do that’

But from what I can tell, that means that ALL discipline gold medals/finals sessions are priced the same which differs DRAMATICALLY from Paris and Milan.

For Paris2024, when I was debating about which Athletics session to attend – it was between the one that had either the Men’s 100 M or the Women’s 100 M final with the Men’s being more expensive. While other Athletic medal sessions were less expensive than either of those.

And in the same way, for Artistic Gymnastics, the Women’s finals were significantly more expensive than the Men’s finals.

There was a lot of nuance (and I would argue thought) put into pricing that doesn’t exist for the LA28 Olympics ie EVERY Athletic Medal session is priced the same from those that include the Men’s 100M and Women’s 100M to those that include the 800M races.

The reality is that there are races or disciplines that are marquee/top billing which would make sense that those events are priced at a premium.

Unfortunately the LA28 Olympics took a different route and priced all finals at that premium rate making it so much more expensive to attend.

To be fair, I am quite jaded with FIFA and World Cup 26 only recently concluded so I can’t say how much of my anger is misplaced…but I also don’t think that I am completely wrong in how I am looking at it.

And also doesn’t help that I finally decided that this would be a good time to deep dive into what I spend at Paris2024 (but that is the only Olympics experience that I have personally had)

What I Spent for My PARIS2024 Tickets (and How It Affected My Thinking re LA28 Tickets)

Costs were so low here as Paris2024 actively kept ticket prices and fees (the processing fee was 1.5% vs LA28’s service fee) reasonable and I really lucked out with some incredible last minute seats.

My Total Spend on the Games was actually $736.40

I did buy and sell some tickets through the official re-sale site. For example I ended up with multiple beach volleyball sessions but kept only the one with the incredible seat and ended up selling the first athletics Athletics ticket I bought when a better seat became available). Again fees were reasonable with it being 10% more than the original ticket price when buying and 5% when selling on the official Paris2024 resale site (and no processing fee was charged!)

Also I did buy the commemorative paper tickets which for all of my event was $27.82/€24.94 (LA28 is charging $18 PER TICKET!)

That’s the other reason why I didn’t buy LA28 tickets with 24% service fee and a 12 ticket maximum (still hasn’t been disclosed how it will work with buying and re-selling tickets) as I prefer to have good seats for sporting events =(

One of my favorite parts about Paris2024 were all the free events that were honestly as fun to experience as some of the events! The photo montage above is from the Champions Parade that was held most days (where you got to celebrate previous day’s medal winners!)

I imagine that I will end up at LA28 since I am such a sports and Olympics nut…right now, I am having a hard time wrapping my head and wallet around the astronomical ticket prices and fees but I am also the person that went to two World Cup matches this year (and I actively loathe FIFA) Curious about those trips? Here’s how I was able to pull off my Vancouver trip and this is for the KC Quarterfinal match