Paris Olympics hit record with 9.7 million tickets sold, more still available – Firstpost

After a difficult start to the year, the Paris 2024 Games have broken the record for the most tickets sold or allocated in the event’s history, according to organizers. And yet, tickets are still available.

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Organizers say 9.7 million tickets have been sold or allocated for this year’s Olympics and Paralympics, including 8.7 million for the former and 1 million for the latter.

For Paris, a total of 10 million tickets have been put on sale for the Olympics, meaning that despite the historic popularity of the sporting events and the unprecedented scale of this year’s competitions, there will still be plenty of empty seats.

Total ticket sales figures are expected to increase, however, as tickets are still on sale for some of the 45 sports.

“There’s a real buzz in the city, and these are the first Games I’ve been to,” said Carmen Rivera, 29, from Madrid. “I’m not surprised that these are the most popular Games ever, because the pandemic and other factors have impacted previous ones.”

The previous ticket sales record was held by Atlanta in 1996, when 8.3 million tickets were sold.

Starting in April, about a million free tickets to the Games were distributed to local youth, amateur athletes, people with disabilities and others in a bid to widen access to the Games, following criticism that exorbitant ticket prices excluded ordinary people.