Milano Cortina tickets seen in demand despite prices
Fans from around the world will have the opportunity to secure their places at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on Tuesday when general ticket sales resume, with demand seen high despite the cost involved.
The Olympics will run from Feb. 6 to 22, 2026, with the Paralympics to follow in March. The Games will be co-hosted by Milan and the Alpine town of Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The lowest ticket price will be €30 ($32.9) while 57% of tickets will be sold at prices of up to €100, the organizers said. For the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, around 50% of tickets were sold for €50 or less.
Prices climb to €1,400 for the men's ice hockey final — the most expensive sporting event of the Games — and up to €1,200 for the figure skating gala.
In Paris, the most expensive tickets, which were for the men's basketball final and some athletics sessions including the one featuring the men's 100 meters, were priced at €980.
Rising ticket prices for major events are a common complaint among sports fans.
The closing ceremony, to be held in the city of Verona, will be the most expensive event of the Winter Games, with prices ranging from €950 to €2,900. Tickets for the opening ceremony in Milan will range from €260 to €2,026.
However, the cost has not dampened enthusiasm so far.
The success of the first phase of sale in early February, when limited numbers of tickets were available, led organizers to add a second sales window in late February.
"Purchasing tickets was a smooth and easy process," said Ed Schneider Jr., who lives in New York State and bought in the early window.
"However, the prices I encountered for the figure skating and short track tickets, the preliminary rounds, are extremely high," he added.
In these two sales windows, 613,000 tickets were sold, the organizers said, just over 40% of total capacity.
"In addition to the large number of tickets sold in Italy, significant demand has come from Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France," they added.
For the Paralympic Winter Games, whose general ticket sales started on March 6, 90% of tickets are priced at up to €35. At Paris' Paralympic Summer Games around 50% of tickets were sold at €25 or less.
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