the million ticket sales mark (finally) reached but… – Libération

Paris 2024 boss Tony Estanguet announced to “L’Equipe” that this “small symbolic milestone” was reached on Wednesday, June 26. While acknowledging that there was still work to be done: 1.8 million tickets are still looking for buyers.

Two months before the opening ceremony, the Paralympic Games are still struggling to fill up. But little by little, assures the organizing committee, places are finding takers. In the columns of the team, Tony Estanguet, the president of Paris 2024, is pleased to have passed the “small symbolic milestone” of one million tickets sold on Wednesday June 26, which is “already very good compared to what has been done in the past “. The triple Olympic medalist is nevertheless aware that for the Paralympic Games, it is “more difficult to find the French” than for the Olympics.

The fact remains that out of these million tickets sold, a very large portion were purchased by public stakeholders. On the one hand, this is positive because it will allow many uninitiated people, and children in particular, through their schools, to discover parasport. On the other hand, this shows the difficulties that Paris 2024 has in attracting the general public to the Paralympics: 1.8 million tickets still remain to be filled.

Objective: to do as well as in London

The organization wants to be reassuring and keeps repeating that in London in 2012, an example in this regard where more than 2.7 million people attended the Paralympic Games, hundreds of thousands of tickets were sold in the last weeks. Many people, seeing the Olympics on television, wanted to take part in the party and fell back on the Paralympics.

London also relied on a very strong communication campaign aimed at making the athletes known and encouraging people to come and see them. Paris 2024 launched its own a few weeks ago, on social networks and in the Parisian public space. On each poster, an athlete and a slogan: “I’m missing nothing, except you.”

Let the French who wake up in the coming weeks be reassured: places for the Paralympics are much more affordable than for the Olympics. 80% of tickets are sold for 50 euros or less, including a large proportion for 15 euros. And most of the disciplines are still available, even though armchair fencing or parasport are fully booked.