Olympics

IOC members concerned over LA 2028 Games entry visas, increased ticket prices

Published

2 months ago

February 3, 2026

Kunle Solaja

Summary

*IOC members raise concerns over LA 2028 visa process
*LA 2028 ticket prices 17% higher than Paris 2024
*LA Games lack federal funding, rely on sponsorships and tickets

The issues of entry visas and inflated ticket prices for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics dominated a progress report delivered by the American organisers to the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday.

Several IOC members, including International Equestrian Federation chief Ingmar De Vos, raised the issue of entry visas for hundreds of thousands of athletes, their families, officials, media and fans to the U.S., asking LA Games organisers whether the process could be simplified.

Dagmawit Girmay Berhane, an IOC member from Ethiopia, said organisers should make sure that Olympic qualifying tournaments, held in the United States over the next two years, also allowed access to all eligible athletes.

“We have worked very closely with the (U.S.) State Department to design a visa system to allow athletes… to have access to a visa system designed especially for them,” Gene Sykes, chairman of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said.

He added that there was ongoing close cooperation with U.S. authorities to make the process as easy as possible.

This is not the first time IOC members raised visa issues with the Games organisers, with the White House having already set up a task force to handle visas.

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump banned citizens of several countries from travelling to the U.S.

Olympic Games can attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the world for the 16-day event, with more than 200 countries taking part and over 10,500 athletes competing.

Sykes said this year’s soccer World Cup would act as a trial run for visas, albeit on a smaller scale, with only 48 nations taking part in that tournament.

“The FIFA World Cup will also be happening this summer so this entire process of welcoming visitors to the United States… is getting something of a trial run,” Sykes said.

TICKET PRICES

IOC members also highlighted LA Games ticket prices, saying they were considerably more expensive than those for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“When you privately pay for the Games, we have only two revenue streams: sponsorships and tickets. Our ticket prices on average are 17% higher than Paris,” LA Games chief Casey Wasserman told the IOC session.

“To be fair the economic opportunity and the four-year difference (from Paris) could have allowed us to go a lot higher than that. So I understand some of the tickets are expensive,” Wasserman said.

The LA Games financial model does not have any federal contribution, unlike most Olympics held in other countries, meaning organisers must maximise revenues.

Wasserman, who apologised last week for communicating with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell more than 20 years ago, after the publication of a series of personal emails between the two, was spared any questions on that issue.

New files related to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell’s former boyfriend, published by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, included flirtatious email exchanges between Wasserman, who was married at the time, and Maxwell dating from 2003.

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Olympics

LA28 says first Olympic tickets will go on sale on April 9, resale partners named for 2027

Published

3 days ago

March 31, 2026

Kunle Solaja

Tickets for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will go on sale to the general public on April 9, organisers said on Monday, as LA28 also moved to reassure fans over ticket security by naming a group of verified resale ‌platforms that will begin operating in 2027.

A presale for residents in qualifying areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will begin on April 2, with notification emails for selected buyers set to roll out from March 31 through April 4, LA28 said.

On April 7, the organising committee will notify remaining registrants whether they were selected for a purchase window in the first general sales round, known as Drop 1.

“This week marks the first opportunity for fans to claim a seat at the LA28 Olympic Games,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.

LA28’s ticketing programme will include 1 ⁠million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price point. Roughly 5% of the Olympic tickets will cost over $1,000, while more than 75% of all tickets, including finals, will be under $400 and nearly 50% of all tickets will be under $200.

“Tickets are comparable to and in many cases well under what we see for other professional sporting and major entertainment events in the U.S.,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 Senior Vice President, Games Delivery Revenue, told reporters on a call.

RESALE PROGRAMME

Separately, LA28 said its verified multi-platform resale programme would open in 2027, with AXS and Eventim serving as the official secondary ticket marketplace and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets also designated as verified resale platforms.

The announcement comes as organisers prepare for the first ticket drop and seek to warn fans against buying from unauthorised sellers before the resale programme launches.

LA28 said primary tickets would only be sold through its official ticket service providers, AXS and Eventim. It added that any LA28 tickets offered for resale before 2027 ‌should not ⁠be considered verified.

“While LA28’s resale platforms will not be launched until 2027, having a variety of platforms was critical to providing fans multiple points of access to verified tickets,” Hoover said.

LOCAL PRESALE

Fans who registered for the LA28 ticket draw and whose billing postal codes fall within qualifying counties were automatically entered into the local presale draw. Those selected will receive 48-hour purchase windows running from April 2 through April 6 and must use a payment method tied to a billing postal code in an eligible county to complete their ⁠purchase.

For both the local presale and Drop 1, selected buyers will have 48 hours to purchase tickets, while any tickets placed in a cart must be checked out within 30 minutes. Buyers may complete multiple transactions during their allotted window until they reach the ticket limit.

LA28 said tickets would be available across all Olympic sports, as well as for the ⁠opening ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Fans selected for time slots may buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, plus up to 12 tickets for the soccer tournament that will not count toward the general Olympic-event limit. Ceremony tickets will be capped at ⁠four per buyer and will count towards the 12-ticket maximum.

Registrants who are not assigned a time slot in either the local presale or Drop 1 will be automatically entered into future draws, LA28 said. Paralympic tickets are due to go on sale in 2027.

Ticket-inclusive hospitality packages from official provider On Location are also expected to go on sale in April. Visa will be the official payment method for purchases.

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Olympics

LA28 unveils floral-inspired visual identity for 2028 Olympics

Published

2 weeks ago

March 23, 2026

Kunle Solaja

Workers from LA28 setup Olympic and Paralympic flags outside the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

Organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled the event’s official visual identity on Monday, a floral-themed design system meant to reflect the city’s landscape, neighbourhoods and ‌cultural character.

The branding will appear across competition venues, fan areas, citywide installations, signage, digital platforms and broadcast presentations during the Games, LA28 said.

At the centre of the design is the “Superbloom,” a reference to the bursts of wildflowers that can blanket parts of Southern California after periods of rain.

LA28 said the ⁠concept was intended as a metaphor for the Games, with years of preparation culminating in a short, high-profile global event.

The core graphic is built around 13 individual blooms, which organizers said represent different elements of Los Angeles, from its entertainment culture to its neighbourhoods, people and native landscape.

The colour palette draws on the Bird of Paradise, the official flower of Los Angeles, and is grouped into four families – Poppy, Scarlet Flax, Bluebell and Sagebrush – to evoke the region’s terrain and vegetation.

Organizers said ‌the ⁠typographic style was inspired by Los Angeles street signage, including strip mall and hand-painted storefront lettering, in an effort to give the identity a distinctly local feel.

LA28 said the design was developed to work across a wide range of settings, from nearly century-old venues ⁠to new facilities, while also accounting for broadcast requirements, digital formats and lighting conditions. The organising committee partnered with design studio Koto on the project.

The identity was unveiled more than ⁠two years before the Olympic opening ceremony in what organizers described as an unusually early rollout, allowing partners and stakeholders more time to incorporate the branding into ⁠their materials.

Los Angeles will host the Olympics for a third time in 2028, after staging the Games in 1932 and 1984. It will also host the Paralympics for the first time.

-Reuters

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Olympics

LA28 ticket registration nears deadline as first Olympic qualifiers emerge

Published

2 weeks ago

March 17, 2026

Kunle Solaja

LA28 officials speak to the media - LA Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California, U.S. - January 13, 2026 General view of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum REUTERS/Daniel Cole

Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament ‌schedule expanded.

More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.

Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the ⁠first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.

There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.

LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.

BASEBALL RETURNS

The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World ‌Baseball ⁠Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.

Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places ⁠will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.

LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive ⁠Board to extend the competition window.

Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.

Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, ⁠Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.