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By Cameron Kiszla
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The high prices for tickets to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles have been a hot topic in the leadup to the quadrennial event, but one prominent sports figure was recently upset over a different aspect: service fees.
Holly Rowe, a broadcaster for ESPN, blasted the Olympics organizers for charging service fees she said were nearly a quarter of the price of the tickets, reports Ryan Anderson of the California Post.
'THIS Is NOT Fair to Fans'
Rowe took to social media to bemoan that the track and field finals tickets she bought for about $3,300 came with a $793 service fee, an added expense she said was far too much.
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As Anderson pointed out, that service fee is about 24% of the tickets' price.
“I am SO excited I was able to purchase tickets for @LA28 until I got my receipt,” Rowe reportedly wrote on X in a post that appears to have since been deleted. “I work so hard for my money to splurge on this once in a lifetime experience but the service fees should NOT be sliding scale.”
Instead, she argued the service fee should be charged per ticket, not as a percentage of what the tickets cost.
“Same service for a $100 ticket as a $1000 ticket,” she wrote. “THIS is NOT fair to fans.”
While Rowe's complaints are targeted toward the fees, not the ticket prices themselves, they fall into a general discontent with the price for people to attend the Games.
There were tickets available for $28 for locals, but they were quickly snapped up, leaving many with a choice to either pay large sums for sought-after events or attend less popular events for a more affordable price.
A former ticketing executive, though, has defended the prices.
Fred Rosen, former head of Ticketmaster, explained to James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times that the prices are set at that level so that taxpayers don't have to "subsidize" the Games.
“The L.A. Olympic [Organizing] Committee has every right to sell assets. It has to do that to make sure the city doesn’t pay any money,” Rosen told Rainey. “And the fair value is determined by whether people pay for the tickets or not.”
Tickets are certainly being bought, but as for whether they are a fair value, that remains up for debate.
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