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© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Got a Tokyo Olympic ticket? Unrivaled demand causes turmoil
By STEPHEN WADE TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
36 Comments
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Belrick
The whole event has been turned into a giant money grabbing scheme! Absolutely chaotic and disdain for the home nation fans. Personally I'll be doing my best to avoid even watching any of it on TV!
gogogo
Yakuza will be selling them don't worry.
sensei258
A co-worker of mine actually snagged a pair of tickets to the soccer finals. I wonder what he could get if he sold them.
yoshi
People who couldn't get tickets of the coming Tokyo Olympic Games, please watch them on TV. And come to Japan World Exposition, Osaka 2025.
kurisupisu
Just have another one - it works for everything else!
Ganbare Japan!
Many events you can watch for free. Marathon, triathlon, walking, yacht racing and surfing, for example. It is going to be the greatest show on earth!
since1981
Confused here. If so many people were turned down, meaning not enough tickets, how could they have another lottery? Where did the extra tickets come from? Did many people decide not to accept their ticket?
Meiyouwenti
The Olympics is something you watch on TV in an air-conditioned room.
alwaysspeakingwisdom
"Overwhelmed by unprecedented demand, "
Nice problem to have. The Tokyo Olympics is going to be great.
JJ Jetplane
Millions of people were let down? Seriously? It’s a lottery. Millions of people are disappointed they don’t win in every lottery.
I am disappointed I never win anything from the New Years lottery cards. Can they send me more so that I can have a chance to win?
Kobe White Bar Owner
Just like me getting the "chance" to sell at a Kobe hanabi festival. Lotteries cost Money, people should wake up and smell the brown envelopes.
drlucifer
If the peking olympic in the most populous nation on earth wasn't then that says alot about the marked dfference in perception of international events between the chinese and japanese.
Madden
Another lottery for those who got 0? I applied for a bunch of events and only got one sport, the one I was probably least interested in although of course I was happy to get something. I'd like another chance to get some of the more desirable sports though!
afanofjapan
Ugh, applied for around 40 tickets, knowing we wouldnt be getting all of them (but also willing to accept that extremely rare chance).
Got none.
I guess i will be at the mercy of ticket scalpers charging 10x face value for watching a minor event. Who wants to take a guess at how much opening ceremony tickets will be reselling for?
Kobe White Bar Owner
One sided
Leaching
Yak
Money
Predatory
Interests
Corruption
Strangle hold
Serrano
Only 386 days to go? Why, that means... omg, they still haven't pushed the start date back to October! They're actually going to do this July-August?! Insane...
Ganbare Japan!
Paralympic tickets will be available and many will be free. Perhaps it's not as "cool" to boast about going to Paralympic as Olympics, but people should consider it. And support disabled athletes.
Bugle Boy of Company B
Just wait until people start printing FAKE tickets! SO in additional to paying scalping prices, you will get a worthless piece of paper. Mark my words!
Disillusioned
One should not compare Tokyo with Brazil. Have you noticed the exact number of tickets is not being publicised? The stadiums and venues accommodated twice as many people in Brazil. It's not about popularity. It's about availability.
quercetum
Hopefully 2020 will top 1964 and 1998. These chances don’t come very often.
papigiulio
This. How many tickets were sold the last time? I feel they just sold a low number to pretend if everything was sold out they could market it as POPULAR tickets. A good marketing scheme.
Akie
Hahaha, lottery, that is the key word.
Luddite
The Paralympics in London was sold out. No free tickets.
fatboysosa
It sounds like the popular events – baseball, tennis, athletics, judo, karate, swimming – were way over-subscribed. The same happened at London 2012. The remaining tickets will probably from the early rounds of hockey, soccer and basketball.
kohakuebisu
If it comes well short of paying for the facilities and many of them end up losing lots of money, I don't care how well attended the Games are. Attendance is not the only indication of success.
koiwaicoffee
How many tickets the organisers, sponsors and government officials kept for themselves? They will not say it.
Dango bong
would rather drill a hole in my head through my ear hole than be in Tokyo when this garbage starts
shoganai
ask the broadcast companies.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/u-s-tv-broadcasters-dominate-tokyo-2020-olympics-schedule/
https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-tokyo-olympics-schedule-prime-time-20190416-story.html
Cricky
Can't get a ticket? Volunteer? then you get to mutch around in a free t-shirt in obscene heat being asked inane questions by tourists. Opportunities like this don't come every day. And between wiping your brow from sweat you might catch a glimpse of an athlete collapsed from heat stroke. Memories are forever.
JustAGoodOleBoy
The whole thing is a sham and a joke. The biggest "sponsor" of the Tokyo Olympics is the Tokyo taxpayer and they are not getting the tickets. This new auction is simply a way to entice frustrated applicants into buying tickets for Air Pistol, Handball, and Race Walking. Tickets for Opening Ceremony, Gymnastics, Swimming will absolutely not be available in this secondary auction. Despite all those statements of fairness in opportunity, if you want tickets for the popular events you will have to buy an all inclusive travel package from the official resellers.
shonanbb
If you were smart and volunteered to help, you would have gotten passes.
DaDude
From what I heard, a lot of people rejected their ticket because either A. They realized they couldn't afford it or B. They didn't want to go all the way to Tokyo and spend tons for transportation/accommodation for just one event.
starpunk
Gotta get those travelers and consumers stoked. Look at the picture here. Cute 'masculine' mascot, cute 'feminine' mascot on a bench. Put a cute real woman sitting between the 2 mascots. A perfect promotion gimmick, works fine every time.
You better believe it. It's going to be a free-for-all. And this cute lady will probably have to get her Olympics ticket herself. No free ride for her.