Former Ticketmaster CEO calls 2028 Olympic ticket prices ‘fair’

The organizers of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles continued to roll out tickets, with packages of preferred seats and suites going on sale this week. A pair of seats to one men’s basketball semifinal could cost you $5,000. Two preferred seats to the women’s basketball final are listed on the LA28 website at a total of $6,000. And a night that will feature four finals at SoFi Stadium’s swim complex will cost two people up to $4,750.

Such prices have set off howls of protest from some fans. But the man who practically invented the modern ticket business has an answer to the naysayers: Get over yourselves.

“I am proud of the fact that our city got the Olympics,” said Fred Rosen, the former chief executive who built Ticketmaster into an industry behemoth. “And I am also proud of the fact that people understand it’s not something the city can afford to subsidize.”

One of the prime revenue streams that LA28 organizers will use to make sure the Games make money — and don’t require a subsidy from L.A. or the state of California — is to charge fair-market prices for tickets, Rosen said.

“The L.A. Olympic [Organizing] Committee has every right to sell assets. It has to do that to make sure the city doesn’t pay any money,” Rosen said in a phone interview from his home in Bel-Air. “And the fair value is determined by whether people pay for the tickets or not.”

Rosen realizes that not everyone will like his opinion. Though he has been retired from Ticketmaster for years, critics may cite a decision this month in which a federal jury found that Beverly Hills-based Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary operated a monopoly over concert venues.

Rosen declined to comment on that outcome, but said that the company he built had never faced sustained complaints from the primary customers it serves — venue owners, teams and performers who chose to have Ticketmaster sell seats to their events. Rosen said his business provided a “heat shield” to scores of companies and individuals, who did not have to absorb the acid responses the public always seems to have about ticket prices.

The ticket mogul said he’d come to accept an unfortunate truth: that consumers accept luxury pricing in other realms, but not in ticketing. “Everyone knows you can’t stay at the Four Seasons for the price you pay at a Days Inn,” he said. “So why should a ticket be any different?”

He argues that old-fashioned supply and demand will determine the pricing of the LA28 tickets and customers should understand that. “A ticket is a commodity and no one pays more for a ticket than they want,” said Rosen. “Floor seats cost more money than people pay to sit up in the nosebleeds. People consume content the way they can afford it. And you can watch these things at home on television. It’s the ticketing business. It’s not the ticketing fan club.”

Couldn’t LA28 put more tickets for sale at its minimum price of $28 to help lower-income people?

Rosen has watched enough big event sales to opine that many of those tickets will not put working-class fans in the stands, but simply allow buyers to resell them for huge profits in the after-market, which LA28 plans to open in 2027.

As to his own Olympic ticket aspirations, Rosen said he doesn’t know yet. He’s not sure he’ll be in town, or what events he’ll want to see. When the time comes, he said: “I will pay what fair market value is on a resale site.”

Today’s top stories

Supporters at a February Billionaire Tax Now rally in Los Angeles.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

California’s billionaire tax proposal attracts 1.5 million signatures

• Under the proposal, Californians with more than $1 billion in wealth would pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth.
• If the proposal makes it on the November ballot, it sets the stage for an intense, costly battle over whether the state’s billionaires should pay for services that lower-income residents depend on.

L.A. judge elections see unusual drama

• A pair of typically sleepy L.A. County judicial races have become increasingly contentious in recent months.
• L.A. County Judge Robert S. Draper, 84, is trying to win reelection despite concerns about a major decline in his health and pending proceedings that could remove him from the bench.

A plan to let noncitizens vote in city elections

• Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez wants to place a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot giving the council the power to let noncitizens vote in L.A.’s local elections.
• Backers say noncitizens already pay taxes and deserve representation. One opponent said the idea “undermines the whole concept of citizenship.”

L.A. considers expanding Airbnb-style short-term vacation rentals

• Mayor Karen Bass wants to allow owners of second homes to rent them out short-term, which would generate city tax revenue and provide extra lodging for the 2028 Olympics and other events.
• Hotel workers, housing advocates and others say it would strain already-tight housing supplies.

What else is going on

• Gas prices, wildfire, insurance, climate — here’s what each gubernatorial candidate said during Tuesday night’s debate.
• Nick Reiner’s murder case is delayed until September.
• Tupac’s stepbrother files a wrongful death suit and cites new turns in the 29-year-old murder case.
• The Supreme Court limits the Voting Rights Act in a setback for Black Democrats.

Commentary and opinions

• Columnists Anita Chabria, Mark Z. Barabak and Gustavo Arellano weigh in on who they think won the chaotic California gubernatorial debate.
• Americans aren’t buying Trump’s schtick anymore, argues columnist Jackie Calmes.
• An ex-Fauci aide tried to keep a scientific discussion under wraps. Trump’s latest anti-science attack explains why, writes columnist Michael Hiltzik.

This morning’s must-read

California

For Subscribers

Were the Zodiac killer and the Black Dahlia the same person? The devil is in the details

A theory suggesting a link between the Black Dahlia and Zodiac murders has generated widespread attention in recent months. On the surface, the two unsolved cases bear little resemblance.

April 30, 2026

Another must-read

• Why a major reorganization at the Forest Service has people concerned.

For your downtime

(Los Angeles Times photo illustration; Photos by Juliana Yamada, Jason Armond, Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times; Clare V., AndSons, Saint Jane, Ana Cho, Andrea Cheung, Nijeria Thompson, Rockii Studios, Theodore Payne Foundation, AYR, BX Ceramics)

Going out

• Mother’s Day gifts: Here are the 46 best Mother’s Day gifts and experiences, all made in L.A.
• Wellness events: Here are 8 free L.A. wellness events in May with yoga, music, sound baths and more.
• Theme parks: Darth Vader arrives at “Star Wars” Land, marking a pivot for Disneyland.

Staying in

• Movies: Here are 10 Meryl Streep performances to revisit before “The Devil Wears Prada 2”
• Recipe: Here’s a recipe for weekday breakfast burritos with seared tomatoes and avocado.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.

A question for you: What’s your favorite California-themed book?

Jody says, “The novel ‘Mary Coin’ by Marisa Silver is a haunting redux of Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ Because these two titles are so closely intertwined in my imagination I’ll say that ‘Mary Coin’ is my second most favorite book about California with ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ being my first. Both novels capture the painful honesty of an important aspect of how our state became an agricultural juggernaut.”

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... from our archives

Tim Berners–Lee invented the World Wide Web

(AP)

On April 30, 1993, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee launched the world’s first website, setting off one of the biggest transformations in technology.

For the World Wide Web’s 20th anniversary, former Times staff writer Salvador Rodriguez wrote about the site’s history and how it was originally designed for universities to share research.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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