Californication: LA28 tickets are “insanely high” as buyers complain on social media

Would-be attendees to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games are not singing Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” today, as they found out the hard way that ticket prices are very high.

Buyers report several expensive add-on fees in the shopping cart.

Sales went live on Thursday, but purchasers were shocked to find a hefty 24 percent service fee added at checkout. Entry-level tickets start at $28 USD (€26), prices can climb to as much as $2,000 (€1,840) depending on the event or package selected.

Premium ticket packages for the popular track and field finals are even steeper, ranging from $2,350 (€2,160) to $8,250 (€7,590) for top-tier seats.

The gauge

Lori Rovner of Manhattan Beach told the LAIst she was finally able to purchase tickets to the games after receiving several “access denied” messages.

Her total for 16 tickets was $2,604.63, with the tickets costing $2,100, with a service fee of $504.63.

“It’s insane,” Rovner said. “I don’t understand what the service is.”

The first drop of presale tickets went out on Thursday, and immediately, there were problems.

One user on Reddit’s Olympics thread shared a screenshot of their cart. They purchased ten tickets to five different events, for swimming, basketball and soccer. The total cost for all of it was more than $11,000. 

But it was the service fee that really stood out, costing them $1,038.22.

People have slammed the high service fees, calling it out as a “money grab.”

The question floating in the ether is, “Why did you buy the tickets, then?”

From the City of Lights to the City of Angels

Some LA tickets are apparently four times higher than the comparable seats for events during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The New York Post reports, “Comparing pricing of the LA tickets vs what I paid for Paris is shocking. Approx. 400% increase / 4x jump in cost. Additionally, the service fee for LA is 25% vs Paris 1.5%. I assumed LA would be more expensive….but 400% more?”

They then listed the price difference they said they paid.

• LA Athletics (Group B) $2,050 ticket ( including $510 service fee)
• Paris Athletics (Group B) $550 ticket + $16 service fee

Still, some said the person who shared the thousand-dollar-plus screenshot of fees was paying for a premium package and that they had managed to get tickets for much less.

“For those who want to throw up at the prices, I got 18 tickets for 9 events and paid a little over $550. I went with all $28 tickets,” the person wrote. “I got women’s soccer, gymnastics, beach and regular volleyball, track and field, baseball and a few others.

“This guy went all out. I would never spend that amount.”

LA28 organizers are defending high ticket prices. The justification is to fund a privately financed $2.5 billion budget without government funding. While premium tickets for marquee events can exceed $5,000, LA28 highlights that 1 million tickets are available for $28, and roughly half are priced at $200 or less. That is terrific if you want to watch a preliminary round of tennis from the nose bleeds in the Armetis II.

The budget for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles anticipates $2.5 billion. And it’s understood that Hollywood sells Californication.