Paris: A poll survey released on Sunday stated that about four out of five French people believe that the cost of the 2024 Paris Olympics tickets is too high. This finding highlights the public's growing dissatisfaction with the event's organisers.
According to a survey from the Odoxa polling group for the RTL media group and sports betting company Winamax, a total of 82 per cent of respondents said that tickets for the games were "not accessible in terms of price".
The same number of respondents (79%) thought the ticketing process was "complicated," according to the poll, AFP reported.
Following the first significant public release of tickets through a lottery system, the president of the organising committee for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tony Estanguet, has been placed on the defensive over the past two weeks.
Successful applicants were required to purchase tickets for three events at once, and many discovered that sports were priced at a minimum of 80 euros, meaning a family of four might have to pay close to 1,000 euros.
"We're not more expensive than London in 2012," Estanguet told RTL radio on February 22. "It's the same for the football and rugby World Cups. These are the prices."
Games Wide Open is the official tagline for the Paris event, and former gold medalist in canoeing Estanguet pledged "a large number of tickets at accessible prices, for all the sports" when the ticketing policy was revealed in March of last year.
A million tickets at a cost of 24 euros ($25) and nearly half at a cost of under 50 euros have been promised by the organisers, but the public's frustration appears to be due to the challenges in securing these discounted offers.
Social media has been flooded with complaints about the high cost of athletics tickets—up to 690 euros—and the scarcity of tickets for fast-selling sports like climbing and fencing.
In the first round of ticket sales, about three million were available; the remaining seven million would be available in two additional rounds.
In the second part, which will start in May, applicants will be able to purchase single tickets, including those for the opening and closing ceremonies.
At the conclusion of 2023, a third and final period of ticket sales will begin.
The left-leaning daily Le Monde stated in an editorial this week that the initial responses to the ticketing system were "worrying" given the organisers' goals of making the games accessible and successful with the general public.
"Tony Estanguet might claim that 'tens of thousands of people are delighted', but the dissatisfaction of the public is a threat when ticket sales are only just starting," the newspaper added.