Article

2026-04-07 Economy

Olympics tickets have a 24% service fee – and it's raising eyebrows among Angelenos

[LAist] Lori Rovner of Manhattan Beach is a big sports fan, so there was no question that when tickets for the Olympic Games went on sale, she'd be signing up.

She scored a slot in the first ticket drop, which launched Thursday, and logged on right at 10 a.m., hoping to score tickets to the Opening Ceremonies and some finals too. After battling her computer to get through "access denied" screens and a lost shopping cart due to a 30-minute time limit, she bought 16 tickets.

It was only when she was about to purchase that she noticed the service fees, which were around 24% of each ticket. One $2,100 ticket had a $505 service fee, bringing the total cost to $2,604.63.

"It's insane," she said of the fee. "I don't understand what the service is." # id) ?>

Posted by Ulailet+Thud3602 2026-04-07 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1857 views ] Top

1 I choose not to be serviced in that way.

Posted by Super Hose 2026-04-07 05:57|| 2026-04-07 05:57|| Front Page Top

2 I wouldn't pay 24 cents for a ticket to the shit.

Posted by chris 2026-04-07 08:35|| 2026-04-07 08:35|| Front Page Top

3 Nor would I.

Posted by Besoeker 2026-04-07 08:39|| 2026-04-07 08:39|| Front Page Top

4 "Oh, come on, man! We just want to moisten our beaks. It's only a teensy service charge, not even a quarter of the purchase price."

Posted by SteveS 2026-04-07 08:59|| 2026-04-07 08:59|| Front Page Top

5 "I don't understand what the service is."

It's the same service as your high speed train, helping the homeless, rebuilding Pacific Palisades. In other words, pure scam for the grifting class.

Posted by Procopius2k 2026-04-07 11:00|| 2026-04-07 11:00|| Front Page Top

6 I would be curious to see the "Service Charge" broke down like a phone bill.

Posted by swksvolFF 2026-04-07 11:19|| 2026-04-07 11:19|| Front Page Top

7 Are they buying the tickets directly from the Olympic committee or is this going through Ticket Master? It sounds like Ticket Master to me.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2026-04-07 11:32|| 2026-04-07 11:32|| Front Page Top

8 Yeah, trying to log on at 10 a.m. while everybody else is also trying to log on. Then the servers, which are undoubtedly Microsoft and buggy under the best conditions, are unable to cope with the volume. I've been there, done that, with Ticket Master. Makes me wanna go to the box office and stand in line. And you know the fix is in. Apart from the service fee, you know the best tickets are going to the people who either have the big money or the right connections or both...or else the criminals who buy in bulk and then scalp the tickets for really big money. Good thing I'm not really interested in the Olympics anyway but there have been some concerts I would have liked to see.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2026-04-07 11:43|| 2026-04-07 11:43|| Front Page Top

9 Just cancel the service fee, and raise the price of the tickets to $100,000 each. Price is worth it, since this is California, after all.

Posted by Glurong Choth2372 2026-04-07 13:33|| 2026-04-07 13:33|| Front Page Top

10 I call this the stupidity charge.
If you're stupid enough to go along with this, ...

Posted by ed in texas 2026-04-07 13:38|| 2026-04-07 13:38|| Front Page Top

11 Totally unrelated to "gouging."

Post-disaster consumer screams, "REEEEEE!
Rising prices can't happen to MEEEEEE!"
So his Snowball in Hell
(Sacramento) sez, "Well...
"Public service [we: "Fecklessness!"] fee?"

Posted by Slomomble Glomoting5645 2026-04-07 18:01|| 2026-04-07 18:01|| Front Page Top

10:48 DarthVader
10:47 DarthVader
10:42 Frank G
10:13 Grom the Reflective
09:54 no mo uro
09:32 Procopius2k
09:32 Procopius2k
09:31 Chantry
09:29 Chantry
09:07 Skidmark
08:51 SteveS
08:46 Skidmark
08:45 Skidmark
08:32 Skidmark
08:25 Besoeker
08:16 Besoeker
07:29 Grom the Reflective
07:28 Grom the Reflective
07:21 NN2N1
07:19 Grom the Reflective
07:17 Grom the Reflective
07:06 Grom the Reflective
07:04 Grom the Reflective
06:54 Grom the Reflective
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