Letters to the Editor: Readers share their horror stories of trying to purchase early LA28 tickets

To the editor: LA28 promised locals priority access to Olympic tickets through an elaborate presale process — YouTube tutorials, event codes, purchase windows (“You could pay more than $5,000 for a single ticket to the 2028 L.A. Olympics,” April 4). We registered. We studied. We showed up.

We found empty shelves.

Not limited availability. Zero — unless you wanted to drop $1,600 on a single baseball ticket at Dodger Stadium. The Rose Bowl holds nearly 90,000 people and there isn’t a single ticket available for the men’s football final. Where did those tickets go? Corporate hospitality packages and sponsor allotments are carved out before any local resident sees a purchase screen.

And the pricing? Finals sessions run into the thousands — before a 24% service fee that isn’t adequately disclosed before you get to checkout.

I’m not asking for a handout — just a fair shot at a ticket in my own city.

Call it what it is: a rich person’s event with a working-class facade.

David Berón, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Participating in Monday’s “local draw” for tickets to the 2028 L.A. Olympics was an exercise in frustration. The ticketing system worked (or seemed to), but the problem was that every ticket under $400 or $300 appears to have been sold already.

I can understand high prices for marquee events, such as the last day of track and field, or sellouts for gymnastics, but why are there absolutely no tickets available at any price for any event in rowing, for example? Strange.

Most galling was the 24% “service fee” charged per digital ticket. It made me wonder what services they are offering in addition to the ticket. The pricing smacks of Ticketmaster’s shenanigans for popular events.

I feel this ticket draw is rife with opportunities for an enterprising journalist to sniff out some irregularities.

Charlotte Wolter, Santa Monica

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To the editor: My family assisted with the 1984 Olympics. So, needless to say, I was very happy when entering the lottery to purchase early tickets. I received my email: “Congratulations Eva! You’ve been assigned a time slot to purchase LA28 Olympic tickets.”

When the time came, I opened my time slot. Awhile later, the frustration set in. For most events, only the expensive tickets (for me, and probably others) showed up. The cheaper and more affordable ones (for me and probably others) said “currently unavailable.”

Some events were completely unavailable at this time. Very disappointing.

We will definitely attend the Olympics, but we will wait for the affordable tickets to become available.

Eva Kalpins, West Covina

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To the editor: Who’s in charge of the Olympics ticket drop? Live Nation/Ticketmaster? Is the Strait of Hormuz involved?

I went online at my assigned time of 4 p.m. on April 1. No tickets available in any of the five sports I wanted to see. The cheapest ticket I saw at any of those already sold out was $186. LA28 should change its name to LA$1,028.

Steven Lentz, Pasadena

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To the editor: I’m so disappointed. I was born during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, attended the 1984 Olympics in the city of my birth, and was looking forward to attending my favorite sport, track and field, in 2028 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

I clearly remember seeing Edwin Moses winning the 400-meter hurdles and Evylen Ashford taking gold in the women’s 100 meters in 1984, all with my wife and two boys. There were no exorbitant fees, prices were fair and the bus from L.A. Valley College saved me from driving.

I can afford some high fees, but I just don’t like being ripped off, so I guess I will be watching on TV like many others who might otherwise attend.

Dave Simon, North Hollywood

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To the editor: Thanks for James Rainey’s well-written article describing the fiasco that is the LA28 ticketing procedure. I attended track and field for the ’84 Olympics and hoped to repeat the experience for the ’28 Games.

After wending my way through the less-than-intuitive ticket registration process, I was notified of my ticketing slot for Sunday-Tuesday. Hot dog! “This should work out just fine,” I thought. No such luck. As Rainey reported, by that time period, there were no tickets left for less than $1,500 per person. How does that happen?

Perhaps LA28 should have made it clear that not all of the tickets for an event would be available on the first drop. Every premium event was probably sold out on the very first slots and I’d bet many were taken by ticket brokers and their affiliates, leaving nothing reasonable for the general public.

What a shame. I guess I won’t be going back to track and field and I am sure glad I got to experience the excitement and pageantry of the Olympics firsthand in 1984.

Bob Heiber, Calabasas

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To the editor: I greatly appreciated Lorraine Ali’s commentary, as it paralleled my own infuriating experience in trying to buy Olympics tickets (“LA28’s first Olympics ticket drop flops, leaving locals locked out of nearby events,” April 7).

I registered early for pre-sale tickets. I was notified I had a time slot. After many attempts to log in promptly (on my very dependable laptop) at my allotted time, I continued to get error messages. Between this, the lack of ticket availability, the prices (!) and the exorbitant service fee, I’m out. Nope.

I love sports and respect athletes who work so incredibly hard to compete in the Olympics. I was looking forward to attending an event or two, but am not willing to buy into the frenzy and blatant greed.

This country desperately needs to project good will, especially in these times. This was an excellent opportunity for our city to welcome the world and show them our hearts.

Instead, the whole event has become a source of disappointment and frustration for this lifelong resident of Los Angeles.

Liz Kinnon, Culver City