The opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics promises to be spectacular: On the glittering waters of the Seine, a flotilla of barges will carry about 10,000 athletes to the foot of the Eiffel Tower, as nearly half a million spectators line the four-mile route to cheer on the event of the century.
Good luck, though, getting any one of the 100,000 ticketed seats to be front and center at the party. Those are mostly sold out — and the few left cost an eye-popping 2,700 euros, about $2,930 each. Tickets to watch another popular Olympic event, 10-meter men’s platform diving, are now only available through special-service hospitality packages starting at €875, or women’s artistic gymnastics finals, a perennial crowd pleaser: around €1,799.
Paris Olympics organizers set a lofty goal for what they have called the People’s Games, promising to make the world’s most iconic sporting event equitable and accessible.
But get ready to pay up.
Seven months before the Olympic torch casts a glow in the City of Light this summer, the cost of getting into the most in-demand sports competitions, not to mention the price of accommodations and transportation, has risen — sometimes by Olympian proportions.
Many hotels and rental apartments have doubled or tripled their typical summer rates (think an average of €1,000 a night instead of €300), and some have even quintupled them. Airfares are rising fast. The cost of a Paris Metro ticket is temporarily doubling. Even the Louvre Museum and Palace of Versailles have ratcheted up admission fees.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
