Olympic Ticket Prices Could Drop For Non-Brazilian Buyers

Sports fans living outside Brazil who purchased tickets for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics early might be thinking twice about it, having paid higher costs and extra charges. In a late push to help moderate ticket deals ahead of the Aug. 5-21 games, Rio organizers have opened up their local ticket site to whatever remains of the world. This implies fans outside Brazil can now purchase tickets at local rates in Brazilian reals, the local currency. The outcome is ticket costs that could be much lower because of changes in return rates between the real and other currencies and the nonattendance of alleged service fees charged by official ticket resellers outside Brazil.

As of Tuesday, the Canadian dollar is worth 2.50 real. Americans, specifically, could lament having purchased early.

“This is a great deal for someone coming to Brazil,” Rio ticket director Donovan Ferretti told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Now the exchange rate is in their favour.”

Rio organizers achieved an agreement over a year prior, with official ticket resellers outside Brazil, the individuals who needed to price in dollars, to use the exchange rate of 2.35 reals to the dollar. The rate is presently around 3.25. This implies a ticket estimated at 500 reals, acquired from the American reseller CoSport, would cost about $215. What’s more, approved resellers are also permitted to gather up to a 20% service charge on ticket deals.

In any case, an American purchaser can now go to the Brazilian site and tap on a ticket valued at 500 reals. At the present exchange rate, that cost is about $150, and there is no service expense.

Apparently, the website has been open to all since June 1. On Thursday beginning at noon local time, Rio organizers 100,000 new tickets on sale.

Rio ticket director Donovan Ferretti said Rio has sold 4.4 million of the 6.1 million tickets available, making it 72 percent. He said of the 4.4 million sold, 1.1 million have been bought by non-Brazilians. He said the largest five foreign buyers in order were: Americans, French, Argentines, Germans, and Japanese.

He said he was not permitted to give particular numbers as a result of an agreement with the approved ticket sellers and also said ticket sales are expanding every day and that Rio hopes to meet its budget estimate of raising 1.045 billion reals ($320 million) through ticket sales.

He said that Rio organizers had no plans to give away free tickets, even if some venues are not full.

“We are selling many more tickets now that we are getting closer to the games,” Ferretti said. He expects most venues to be full, or nearly full, and highlighted that Brazilians typically are late buyers.

“No free tickets,” he said.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes promised after the 2014 World Cup to give away 1.2 million Olympic tickets to students and the poor. In the end, the city bought about 47,000 Olympic tickets — four per cent of his promise.