Southern California residents frustrated by LA28 Olympics ticket prices despite early access
Southern California residents are voicing their frustrations over the cost of tickets for the LA28 Olympic Games, which event organizers have billed as affordable, especially after getting early access last week.
One community that is particularly upset about the ticket prices is Inglewood, where multiple events are slated to be held at SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome. Despite the proximity to their homes, they say that cost will likely keep them from being able to enjoy the games in person.
"I wasn't expecting the tickets to be inexpensive; I wasn't that naive," said Tracy Dworsky, whose family, including her two daughters and their husbands, had put aside $2,000 to buy tickets.
They quickly found out that wouldn't be anywhere near enough, with each ticket costing hundreds of dollars and a 24% service fee to boot.
"It felt like these were being made available for the super rich, honestly," Dworsky said. "I didn't buy anything. Disappointed."
Lifelong Inglewood resident Yolanda Davidson, who lives just blocks from the Olympic venues, is equally as disappointed, especially since they'll have to deal with the chaos surrounding the events, like the trash, crowds, traffic and so on.
"We shouldn't just have to bear all of the burden of the Olympics; we should be able to participate," Davidson said.
Typical events, like the Super Bowl or large musical acts like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, at either of the venues, have clogged city streets and created a safety issue, Davidson says.
"Kanye West was here last week, and people were trying to make it over to Centinela Hospital and they said it took them over 40 minutes just from around the corner on Sage," she said.
She's pushing for all local law enforcement officers to wear body cameras by the time the games come to Los Angeles, a sentiment echoed by local small business owner Esaul Martin.
"We're gonna learn a lot about, after the World Cup, once we see what kind of crowd that brings and how heavy traffic could be, what kinds of tourists we get, how many people are gonna come to our doors, to our city," Martin said. "I think it'll teach us a lot and we'll learn a little more about what we need to do."
He says pushing safety is of the utmost importance, so people can see Inglewood shine while in the global spotlight.
"It's important for us to make sure they understand the city is safe. It's safe and a great city. It's a growing city, we're gonna have some roadblocks and things, we're gonna have to continue to learn as a city and a business," he said. "But, I think we're doing just fine."
LA28 initially said that approximately one million tickets would be as cheap as $28 and recently said that half of all tickets sold would be under $200. They also said that more affordable tickets would be available in the coming ticket drops, not just the ones for Southern California residents.
