LA ‘28 Ticket draw

[Voice of the Quakers]

40 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

No one should be surprised when tiks become available at a later point.

The pre-sale is the biggest rip off in ticketing. Panic buying with mostly expensive options.

That's what I and others thought about the World Cup. We were proven wrong and I think we will be proven wrong with these Olympics, as well. People are increasingly willing to pay a premium for premium events. 

Of note, I was not drawn to purchase tickets in either Drop 1 or 2, but my travelling buddy for the 1996 games was drawn for Drop 2. He saw the prices and sessions available (no medal rounds for wrestling) and passed.

If I attend LA (and i do still want to go), my expectations are now to double my budget for half of the tickets/sessions I was planning to purchase. I will probably suck it up and purchase a package directly from USA Swimming if available because I think their hospitality may be better than what LA 28 is offering. I assume everyone here is already aware you can skip the ticket line if you pay for premium tickets. Generally looking at a minimum of $450 per ticket for wrestling prelims and $750 per ticket for wrestling finals. Link below.

https://hospitality.la28.org/en/products?zoneName=Exposition%2BPark%2BZone,DTLA%2BZone,Carson%2BZone&events=WRE

[MPhillips]

1 minute ago, Voice of the Quakers said:

I assume everyone here is already aware you can skip the ticket line if you pay for premium tickets.

And therein lies the problem. FOMO.

[fishbane]

11 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

And therein lies the problem. FOMO.

Is this a problem? and if so for whom? Some buyers will be price insensitive.  Whatever it costs they are buying.  Creating false scarcity will filter these individuals to higher price tiers.  So bad for the price insensitive group.  For someone like me if I had to pay $700 plus for the finals and $400+ for the prelims I wouldn't be going.  I live across the country and to get a flight, lodging, easting out, and tickets it's to go its going to cost ~$1500+/day to attend and to attend enough sessions to make the trip worth the effort I'd want to attend multiple days.  It's going to be expensive and then finding other people to go with that are willing to pay the same will be difficult. For me the 2027 world championships would provide far more value for money and I'd have more friends interested in going.  

So for someone like me doesn't this false scarcity help?  By filtering big spenders like Voice of the Quakers up to hospitality packages doesn't that leave more tickets for people like you and me?

[LJB]

i clicked that link just to see...

obviously, i am a huge fan of the olympic dream and what it really means to compete for your country in front of the entire world in the biggest and longest running event in the solar system...

but...

those prices per session???

 

[bnwtwg]

3 hours ago, MPhillips said:

No one should be surprised when tiks become available at a later point.

The pre-sale is the biggest rip off in ticketing. Panic buying with mostly expensive options.

The new wrinkle is a ticket can only be transferred once. They are purely digital living on blockchain.

[GreenandGold]

5 hours ago, fishbane said:

Where in the Visa Presale and Draw 2 were your time slots?  I had friends that got the first available timeslot in both the Visa Presale (7/29 10PT) and the main drop 2 (8/10 10PT) and both were able to get tickets.  Everyone I know with later time slots in either the presale or the main drop 2 were not able to get wrestling tickets at any price point. Hospitality packages remain available.

Presale was 7/29 13PT and main drop 2 8/11 10PT. Again, the hospitality packages are a joke and money grab by organizers with no real value add to justify the additional cost other than a pay to play.

[GreenandGold]

4 hours ago, fishbane said:

Is this a problem? and if so for whom? Some buyers will be price insensitive.  Whatever it costs they are buying.  Creating false scarcity will filter these individuals to higher price tiers.  So bad for the price insensitive group.  For someone like me if I had to pay $700 plus for the finals and $400+ for the prelims I wouldn't be going.  I live across the country and to get a flight, lodging, easting out, and tickets it's to go its going to cost ~$1500+/day to attend and to attend enough sessions to make the trip worth the effort I'd want to attend multiple days.  It's going to be expensive and then finding other people to go with that are willing to pay the same will be difficult. For me the 2027 world championships would provide far more value for money and I'd have more friends interested in going.  

So for someone like me doesn't this false scarcity help?  By filtering big spenders like Voice of the Quakers up to hospitality packages doesn't that leave more tickets for people like you and me?

I am not trying to argue but would counter that most Olympic hosts go out of their way to make the games accessible, while LA28 is trying to recoup costs. Their $28 tickets for D level seating available to LA County residents isn't it either and were very limited in number compared to the total tickets issued. The wife and I have already conceded that we will go see some one off events, make a long weekend to check out the festivities, and put our focus into Brisbane as it may actually be less expensive than attending in our own country (guaranteed Brisbane will be easier to maneuver around than LA traffic).

[fishbane]

5 hours ago, GreenandGold said:

Presale was 7/29 13PT and main drop 2 8/11 10PT. Again, the hospitality packages are a joke and money grab by organizers with no real value add to justify the additional cost other than a pay to play.

Wow those are decent time slots pretty early for both.  I am pretty sure 7/29 13PT was the second time slot in the presale.  A friend of mine had the same time slot and couldn’t get wrestling tickets.  He said only wheelchair tickets were left.  The friends with 10PT were able to cat B and C tickets to men’s freestyle.  Your main drop two time slot was also pretty good.  I think it might have been the 3rd time slot behind 10PT and 13pt on 8/10.  I had a friend buy men’s freestyle tickets with a 8/10 10PT time slot.  I don’t know anyone that had 8/10 13PT.  
 

I think there is some value in the hospitality package.  There is admission to the hospitality pavilion before or after the session.  Presumably this includes food and drink, which is expensive at events like this.  I don’t think it’s good value for money as they add $400 to the ticket price.  If it was more like $50 extra it would be a compelling option. $400 is crazy.

[fishbane]

5 hours ago, GreenandGold said:

I am not trying to argue but would counter that most Olympic hosts go out of their way to make the games accessible, while LA28 is trying to recoup costs. Their $28 tickets for D level seating available to LA County residents isn't it either and were very limited in number compared to the total tickets issued. The wife and I have already conceded that we will go see some one off events, make a long weekend to check out the festivities, and put our focus into Brisbane as it may actually be less expensive than attending in our own country (guaranteed Brisbane will be easier to maneuver around than LA traffic).

I don’t know about most Olympic hosts - I’ve only been to the Olympics once before and that was definitely cheaper.  We are paying a little more for worse seats to fewer sessions, but I am still going to get to see nearly all of the men’s freestyle for roughly what I paid the last time.

I thought famously the IOC and FiFA do not pay any costs and keep all the money for events like this.  The host agrees to pay for the costs and exempts the IOC/FIFA from all taxes as part of the bid/host agreement.  As such I wouldn’t think recouping costs would factor into ticket prices.  

[Dark Energy]

On 8/18/2026 at 1:16 PM, Voice of the Quakers said:

That's what I and others thought about the World Cup. We were proven wrong and I think we will be proven wrong with these Olympics, as well. People are increasingly willing to pay a premium for premium events. 

Of note, I was not drawn to purchase tickets in either Drop 1 or 2, but my travelling buddy for the 1996 games was drawn for Drop 2. He saw the prices and sessions available (no medal rounds for wrestling) and passed.

If I attend LA (and i do still want to go), my expectations are now to double my budget for half of the tickets/sessions I was planning to purchase. I will probably suck it up and purchase a package directly from USA Swimming if available because I think their hospitality may be better than what LA 28 is offering. I assume everyone here is already aware you can skip the ticket line if you pay for premium tickets. Generally looking at a minimum of $450 per ticket for wrestling prelims and $750 per ticket for wrestling finals. Link below.

https://hospitality.la28.org/en/products?zoneName=Exposition%2BPark%2BZone,DTLA%2BZone,Carson%2BZone&events=WRE

Thanks for the heads up on this path.

[GreenandGold]

Interesting tid bit, 6 million tickets were sold between Drop 1 and 2 of a total of 10.5 million tickets available. This means 42.8% of all tickets are still floating out there whether being held for future sales or tied to hospitality packages.

[MPhillips]

On 8/18/2026 at 1:41 PM, fishbane said:

 doesn't that leave more tickets for people like you and me?

Looks like close to half.

[fishbane]

1 hour ago, MPhillips said:

Looks like close to half.

I don't like our chances.  Looks like the next drop isn't going to be a lottery just a free-for-all with ticket limits lifted.

"Up next, fans will have more opportunities to purchase Olympics tickets in 2027 on a first-come, first-served basis, LA28 said. The ticket maximum limits across the first two drops will be lifted, meaning no limit on the number of tickets fans can buy.

All fans are eligible, regardless of whether they bought tickets during the first two ticket drops. Registration for a draw will not be required, but fans will need to create an LA28 ID to purchase, if they haven't already done so."

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/olympics/2028-los-angeles/la-olympics-tickets/3932069/

[MPhillips]

10 minutes ago, fishbane said:

just a free-for-all

Glory days...

[bnwtwg]

On 8/21/2026 at 11:07 AM, MPhillips said:

Glory days...

If I were an advisor, I would say this:

Don't get your hopes up unless you know how to cut the line. I'll give everyone a hint: it's the internal Shitcket Master model and if you don't know how to properly build one and spam the API calls to the hourly limit you're probably going to miss out the proverbial meat left on the bone.

[MPhillips]

Never missed anything like, "proverbial meat" although I suppose it will happen?  Always get tiks.

[LJB]

how much for REO front row???