Thousands of tickets are still available for a number of marquee events at the Olympics with just days until the opening ceremony at Paris 2024.
Organisers have confirmed that between 500,000 and 600,000 tickets were still able to be purchased on Sunday afternoon, five days before the Games opens with a glitzy procession down the River Seine.
That included the sessions that feature the men’s and women’s 100m, athletics’ blue riband events, which would usually sell out well in advance of the start of the quadrennial spectacular.
As many as 4,000 seats were also reported by The Times to have been available for the opening ceremony itself, though the cheapest band of tickets at €90 (£76) are sold out.
Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, played down fears of widespread empty seats, though, insisting that a number of ticket packages have only just come available with seating plans recently finalised.
“We will remain prudent, and between now and six months ago, we released new ticket opportunities,” Estanguet explained.
“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.”
The men’s 100m final will headline the evening session at the Stade de France on Sunday 4 August, with tickets still available at a range of prices between €295 (£249) and €980 (£825). The women’s sprint showcase will feature a day earlier, with an entry point €195 (£164) for those still seeking a seat.
Adjusted for inflation, tickets are priced cheaper than for the London Olympics in 2012. Around 250,000 tickets were unsold then, largely for football which took place in large venues around the country, which has again contributed to the high figure in Paris.
The last Summer Olympics in Tokyo had heavy restrictions on spectators due to the Covid pandemic, while in Rio in 2016, about a million tickets went unsold.
More than 300,000 people are expected to line the banks of the Seine in the French capital on Friday, with 45,000 police in attendance in a significant security effort. The personnel will include members of France’s elite special intervention forces trained in counterterrorism.
“There’s a balance to be found with top security, which is absolutely the priority,” Estanguet said. “It’s part of the objective to guarantee the security and to propose a fantastic celebration of the Games.
“But to have this kind of unique celebration, you also need to have a very, very strong security plan. And that’s the case.”
