Tokyo 2020: First wave of Olympic tickets up for grabs

Olympics bell starts ringing in tokyo today. The first tickets for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics went on sale on Thursday (May 9), with Japanese residents able to enter a lottery to watch the sport of their choice.Tickets for the 33 sports range from the cheapest general tickets at ¥2,500 (US$23) to an eye-watering ¥300,000 (US$2,730) for the best seats at the opening ceremony. Those lucky enough to score the best seats for the showcase men's 100m final will pay ¥130,000 (US$1,200). But half of all tickets will be priced at ¥8,000 (US$73) or less and special tickets priced at ¥2,020 (US$18) are available for families resident in Japan with children, senior citizens, and people with impairments.Prices for domestic residents are "about the same as London 2012 but a little higher than the 2016 Rio Games," Yuko Hayakawa, senior 2020 marketing official, told AFP. The lottery - only for residents of Japan during an initial period - runs until May 28, with successful applicants notified on Jun 20 and payment due a fortnight later.The website saw high demand upon opening with a queue system in place even though tickets are not sold on a first-come first-served basis and everyone entering the lottery by May 28 having an equal chance of scooping tickets.Overseas applicants will be able to snap up tickets from Jun 15 via special "Authorised Ticket Resellers" in each country. Organisers have not offered a precise number of tickets available as various stadium configurations are still being finalised with just less than 450 days to go until the opening ceremony. But they said it would be roughly the same as the 7.8 million tickets they estimated when bidding for the right to host the Games.Of these tickets, an estimated 70 per cent to 80 per cent would be allotted to Japanese residents with the rest going to overseas fans. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from Jul 24 to Aug 9.