When the 2028 Summer Olympics (the LA28 Games) hit Los Angeles in July 2028, I will be one of the tens of thousands in attendance, crossing off a major item on my bucket list in the process. The process to purchase these in-demand tickets? Surprisingly smoother than I would've thought.
The journey began at the start of the year when I officially registered for the LA28 ticket draw, aka registering to try to "win" the chance to even get a slot at actually trying to buy tickets. None of it made me hopeful, but as a longtime sweepstaker (it's a thing), I truly live by the sentiment that it never hurts to apply for something or enter a contest because someone has to win — why not you?
Months came and went, and the first batch of tickets for the 2028 Olympics officially went on sale last week. Not for me, but for Los Angeles and Oklahoma City locals through a special early access presale. During this time, I witnessed friends living in the area try their hand first at buying tickets and learned that, as expected, it was insane. Tickets for popular sports like gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball, and tennis went FAST. Still, I kept my sentiment alive... and on Tuesday I got the email I'd been waiting and hoping for, with the subject line reading: "You’ve got a time slot to purchase LA28 Olympics tickets!" The first line of said email read, "Congratulations, Rachael!" And I felt it in my soul.
Not only that, but I had been given the very first time slot for Drop 1 (after presale). Maybe I'd get tickets, after all? Maybe there were more tickets left than my friends and social media had made it seem?
© Getty ImagesFirst tip: Set your expectations low. Better yet, throw them out completely. Mentally prepare for the worst, but stay positive by knowing this won't be your only chance to buy tickets.
Today, I got to find out the truth when it was my time to enter that fateful ticket queue. For starters, let me just say that I'm a massive concertgoer. I'm no stranger to the epic battle that is ticket-buying, so when I was mentally preparing for my time slot, I was ready for the worst. It's the Olympics, after all. This is why I was shocked, happily so, when I logged on right at the start of my slot and there was no lag, the page immediately loaded. Upon entering the queue, I waited only about two minutes before it was my turn in line. From there, it was a bit of a learning curve to figure out all the filters to find events that had tickets left, or ones that included a medal ceremony, or why certain sports weren't even listed, or that there was no way to order the available events based on starting ticket price, or that I couldn't truly filter the ticket price range I wanted to. But once I figured it all out enough, I was able to start adding tickets to my cart, and the best part? Once I added tickets to my cart, I had 30 minutes to buy them.
© Rachael EllenbogenSecond tip: Be fast, but don't stress. Put tickets into your cart even if you're just considering them — and also remember that others are doing the same and might be returning their tickets after the 30 minute timer runs out.
For concerts, usually you have to go to the payment page to have them held for you, for about 10 minutes or so, but this time I was able to have them saved for me as I continued to look for other options. This helped take a lot of the pressure off.
The quick lowdown: More overall tickets than I expected, less tickets than expected for the sports highest on my list, and prices were all over the place but not terrible for the OLYMPICS (especially when you think about how much we all pay for the average arena concert tickets these days).
Did I end up buying any LA28 tickets? Yes! While I had some sports higher on my list than others, ultimately, I did not care what event I saw, as long as I got to see something. Cue: I'm just happy to be ̶n̶o̶m̶i̶n̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ attending.
© Rachael EllenbogenWhat did I end up buying tickets for? Two sports I've never seen before and am now exceptionally excited about. I got tickets for the Rugby Sevens Men's Quarterfinal for roughly $186 per ticket, which is not bad at all, and I got tickets for the Cricket Women's Bronze Medal, for only about $118 per ticket. The latter was part of my effort to see any kind of medal ceremony — and that effort thankfully was rewarded. In general, I saw ticket prices starting at about $80 up to in the thousands, though most events had an available starting price in the low-to-mid hundreds.
Third tip: Unless you magically found exactly what you were looking for, don't use up all of your 12 ticket maximum on this round, as there will be more chances to potentially get the event you most want to see.
I was in and out of the ticket website in about 30 minutes, and that was that: I was going to the Olympics! I now have a base of tickets to build upon. Knowing I have tickets to any of the events already makes me feel like I've accomplished my LA28 purpose and anything I end up getting in the future is simply a bonus.
© Rachael EllenbogenA bonus I'm still hoping for, of course. Throughout the ticket-buying process, you're allowed to buy up to 12 tickets across all events. If you don't use up your maximum in Drop 1, you'll be automatically entered into the chance to buy tickets again during Drop 2, which is expected to launch later this year and which will have new ticket availabilities.
"If fans don’t see their desired sports or sessions in this drop, more tickets may be available in future drops if they haven’t reached their Olympic ticket maximum," an LA28 press release explained.
On top of that, there will be other chances to nab tickets to the event. Not only will LA28's ticket resale program open in 2027, but you can also buy tickets in a more premium manner, aka purchase an Olympic hospitality packages. Sports like gymnastics and tennis had zero tickets available during my time slot, but they are still available in package form.
