The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have been described by the French government as affordable and accessible to the general public.
The first round of ticket sales began on February 13 and, at the moment, only people drawn from a raffle can buy them.
But for a lucky few, the reality has been quite different from what the government had promised.
Many social media users took to Twitter to express their anger and disappointment, especially at the prices.
This Twitter user said: “Stadium tickets are €90 cheapest (series only) or €170/385 for an evening session ticket. I paid £60 for my London 2012 tickets. I’m a big fan of athletics, but this is not reasonable”.
Faced with a barrage of criticism, the president of the Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet, told French radio RTL that the Paris Olympic Games are no more expensive than London 2012.
Is this true? And how do the prices of the Paris Games compare with those of the more recent Olympics in Tokyo, Rio and London?
Looking at this London Assembly report on the 2012 Olympic Games, we see that almost 2.5 million tickets were sold for under £20.
We take the average exchange rate in 2012 and that comes out to approximately 25 euros at that time.
So that’s a bit more expensive than Paris which will only have 1 million €24 tickets available.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games promised 3.8 million tickets for less than 18 euros in 2016.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the cheapest tickets cost approximately 21 euros.
In the end, we see that the prices of Paris are quite similar to those of the previous Olympic Games, except for Rio.
But these calculations have a limit. First of all, we must take into account the inflation rate, the euro did not have the same value as back in 2012.
And secondly, it is important to note that the difference in prices varies between countries because most of the tickets are reserved for the local population.
And according to the World Bank, the average annual salary in Brazil was about €5,500 a month, while in France and Japan it was €30,000, so the difference is really big.
For the Paris 2024 Games, there will be a second phase of ticket sales on May 11. Registration opens on March 15.
Source: Euronews Español
