LA28’s second ticket drop is open — here’s what still matters
Drop 2 runs through Aug. 20 after more than 4 million tickets sold in April. Price bands, purchase limits, and the sessions already gone.
Ticket booths in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum peristyle, where Closing Ceremony and track and field will sit in 2028. LA28’s Drop 2 purchase windows run through Aug. 20.
Photo: MikeJiroch / CC BY-SA 3.0
LA28’s second public Olympic ticket sale is underway through Aug. 20. Drop 1 in April moved more than 4 million tickets — the strongest Olympic launch on record, organizers say — across 85 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Los Angeles and Oklahoma City area buyers took nearly three-quarters of those seats, including 95 percent of everything priced under $100 and half a million $28 tickets in the locals window. Drop 2 refreshes inventory across all sports, subject to what is left, for fans with a time slot who still have room under the purchase cap.
If you got an Aug. 6–7 email with a Drop 2 window, that slot lasts 48 hours. Registration for this draw closed July 22. Carts hold tickets for 30 minutes. You buy a category letter — A through as low as J at some venues — not a pinned seat; exact seats arrive closer to the Games. Category A is the top of that venue’s price ladder, not a fixed dollar amount. An A-tier swimming prelim can cost more than an A-tier session in a quieter sport.
The published bands still set expectations. LA28 has said nearly half of all Olympic tickets are under $200, more than three-quarters under $400, about a million seats at $28, and only about 5 percent above $1,000. Inside the shop, the spread is real: women’s golf prelims have been listed from $28; swimming finals in Drop 1 ran from about $104 into the high $1,800s; opening-ceremony top categories cleared $5,000. Finals cost more than prelims. Marquee sports jump faster between letters than handball or early-round golf.
Limits are cumulative across every LA28 Olympic presale and drop. Cap is 12 Olympic session tickets per person, plus up to 12 separate football (soccer) tournament tickets that do not count against that 12. Ceremonies are capped at four tickets each and those four count toward the general 12. On Location hospitality packages sit outside the general ticket maximum. Anyone 18 or older can purchase; every attendee, including children, needs a ticket.
High-demand sessions went first. In Drop 1, opening ceremony and women’s gymnastics finals were already gone for some buyers early in the locals window, and smaller rooms like the velodrome filled fast. In Drop 2, SwimSwam reported that by Aug. 11, no standard tickets remained for swimming, open-water swimming, water polo, artistic swimming, or diving — only accessible wheelchair and companion inventory in places. Visa Presale buyers had briefly seen swimming prelim A-tier seats around $1,116; those were gone once the wider Drop 2 window opened.
If your slot is still ahead, shop with filters for available standard tickets and, if you want them, medal sessions. Expect aquatics, ceremonies, and marquee gymnastics to be thin or gone; look harder at sports that still show $28–$100 bands, early-round team sports outside the soccer cap, and sessions that are not finals. Official resale does not open until 2027. Paralympic tickets start then too. Missed this draw? LA28 says more general public opportunities come next year — and waiting for the verified resale network beats buying from an unofficial seller now.
Drop 2 will not restock the whole Games. Use the 48 hours for sessions that still have seats — not for chasing what the first 4 million tickets already took.