Despite recent questions about how prepared the city is for the upcoming Olympics, Paris is moving ahead with plans to start ticket sales for 2024 this December, and kicked off the plan with a new video promotion.
The opening ceremony, planned as an open-air event on the Seine, is set for July 26, 2024, in just two years. A total of 13 million tickets will be sold for the various events of the Olympics and Paralympics, with half pledged to be sold for less than €50 each. Top prices go as high as €950. President Macron has pledged that the French state will buy 400,000 tickets for free distribution to youth.
Behind the optimistic announcement, however, two issues loom. One is cost, a frequent issue for Olympics. Budget estimates have already been exceeded, and French officials are discussing possible areas of savings.
The second issue, security issue may be a trickier one. Earlier this year, French security forces turned jammed lines at a football championship at Paris’s Stade de France into a near riot and then denied responsibility and blamed it on British fans. After an investigation assigned blame to the police, doubts were raised about Paris’s ability to manage Olympic crowds. The chief of police has since been replaced.
Image: Official artist’s impression of opening ceremony
