LA to open ticket draw for 2028 Olympics - with seats starting at $28

Sport fans will be able to sign up from Wednesday for a chance to attend the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games - with tickets starting at $28 (£20.80).

Registration opens at 07:00 local time (15:00 GMT) for fans to enter a random ticket draw covering all events that will take place at the Games. The window will remain open until mid-March.

If chosen, fans will be notified via email and will be given a time slot to purchase tickets in April. One million of those tickets will sell for $28, and about one-third are set to cost less than $100 (£74.41).

"These Games belong to everyone," Casey Wasserman, the chairman of LA 2028 said on Tuesday. "These Games have to be affordable and inclusive."

The announcement of affordable ticket prices come after the price of tickets for the 2026 men's football World Cup - which will also be hosted in the US, as well as Canada and Mexico - received some public criticism.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, LA officials said affordability and accessibility were central to their ticketing plan - and their hope that sport fans around the globe would be able to attend.

Tickets for the 2024 Olympics in Paris started at $27.95 (£20).

A special early purchase window will also be open for residents in the Los Angeles area and Oklahoma City, where some Olympic Games are also being held.

2028 will be the first time the Olympics will be held in the US since the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Los Angeles has twice hosted the Olympics - in 1932 and 1984 - and plans to use its already established infrastructure to host the Games.

Event organisers, along with hundreds of Olympians and Paralympians, gathered at the LA Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday for a ceremonial lighting of the Olympic venue's cauldron ahead of the opening of ticket registration.

The Coliseum hosted events on both the previous occasions that the Olympics were held in LA, and it is set to co-host the opening ceremony along with track and field events in 2028.

Organisers at the event on Tuesday explained how the ticketing would work.

Once registered - using their name, email and zip code - fans will be entered into the random draw for time slots to buy tickets in April. The earlier slot a fan is given, the better their chances at securing tickets - as being given a time slot does not guarantee that there will be tickets available once a time slot is open.

The first set of tickets will be up for purchase from 9-19 April. Admission for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games will be among the tickets on offer.

Most of the Games will be held across Los Angeles and southern California, but both canoeing and softball will be held in Oklahoma.

LA28 chief Allison Katz-Mayfield called the random ticket-drawing process "the fairest way to ensure that the broadest number of people can get access to tickets and that no one is advantaged or disadvantaged".

"No matter when you go in, whether you're the first person in or the last person in, you have the same opportunity," she added.

Registration for tickets will be open until 18 March, and there is no advantage to registering early.