I’m planning to attend the LA28 Olympics with my husband and daughter in July 2028. My husband and I signed up for the first ticket drop, but we weren’t selected. So for ticket drop #2, all of our family members 18 and over registered for the chance to buy tickets. In addition, we registered for the Visa pre-sale, which is happening prior to ticket drop #2.
The Thrill of Victory…
On Monday, LA28 notified the winners of the Visa pre-sale. While I wasn’t selected, one of my family members was! And, it was for a Wednesday time slot, the first day of the pre-sale.
To say I was excited would be an understatement. I was thrilled! I started dreaming about getting lucky with tickets for gymnastics, swimming and the opening ceremony.
And the Agony of Defeat
Our time slot was Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific time. I had done all the research before hand: I prioritized the events I wanted, created a cheat sheet of event codes and made sure I had my login and Visa credit card ready.
Unfortunately, there was one time slot before mine, and tickets to the most popular events were already gone by the time 1 p.m. rolled around. No gymnastics, swimming or opening ceremony tickets were to be found. Furthermore, no tennis, skateboarding, modern pentathlon, table tennis or BMX freestyle tickets were available. The cheapest track and field tickets were $750 each. Ouch!
In total, the LA28 Olympics will have around 11 million tickets (plus 3 million for the Paralympics). Over 12 million people have signed up for these ticket drops. Oof.
LA28 Ticket Purchases
I may not have purchased my “dream” tickets, but we are still attending the LA28 Olympics. We bought tickets to 4 events:
- Rowing (medal event)
- Handball (prelims)
- Badminton (prelims)
- Beach Volleyball (prelims, hospitality tickets purchased before this drop)
In total, we’ve spent almost $3000 on those four events for 3 people. Yikes!
My ticket budget for the event was $3000, so we’re almost there. I’m not ruling out buying more tickets, but it will only be for events we are dying to see, like gymnastics or the opening ceremonies.
We are planning to spend 10 days in the area, and we will mix in non-Olympic activities like Catalina Island and Santa Barbara. My next step is finding lodging for our stay.
We’re going to the Olympics!
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
You will have a great time. I went to the 84 Olympics in LA. Events we got tickets for were water polo, diving prelims (saw Louganis), equestrian and the soccer gold medal game (France and Brazil at Rose Bowl). Odd mix but every event is great and the overall experience is amazing. Also, obviously you can look at price of tickets on Stubhub, Seatgeek, etc as it gets closer
@Retired Gambler So cool that you went to the 84 Olympics!