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- Only half of the 2026 Winter Games tickets have been sold so far.
- Italian organizers expect interest to rise with the torch relay starting soon.
- Transport readiness issues may limit spectators; Utah's 2034 Games expect high demand.
SALT LAKE CITY — With just under two months until the start of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, only about half of the 1.5 million tickets available have been sold.
The reason? Italian interest in the Olympics is lagging.
But Italian organizers believe that will change as the Olympic flame lit in ancient Olympia, Greece, is carried across the country before being used in the Games' Opening Ceremonies on Feb. 6.
"That's normal. The local fans get interested closer and I think the beginning of the torch relay will be a very important moment for people realizing that," the CEO of Italy's Games organizing committee, Andrea Varnier, told The Associated Press.
Varnier said shortly before the flame reached Rome over the weekend that he's already seeing some positive signs that Italians are starting to get excited about hosting the first post-COVID-19 pandemic Winter Games.
"We had some tickets on the market a couple of days ago and they were sold out in just a couple of hours," Varnier told the AP. "So there is interest."
That included additional tickets going on sale last week for the Opening Ceremonies and the men's hockey gold medal game on Feb. 22 in Milan. There was also a Black Friday promotion offering a 20% discount on tickets and $9 ski lift passes for ticket buyers.
Sales are also strong at a recently opened Milan-Cortina Olympic store outside of the city's iconic cathedral, Piazza del Duomo, Varnier told the AP.
"People are really going in and buying our merchandise, which is also a good sign," he said.
Readiness issues may limit Olympic spectators
It will be the first Olympics and Paralympics with a pair of cities as hosts. It follows the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing who saw strict limitations on access due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There had been hopes that would have created more demand for 2026 tickets. Ticket sales are a major revenue source for the Games, but so far, just over 850,000 have been sold as of Saturday, according to the AP.
At the same time that sales are sluggish, concerns about transporting spectators to 2026 venues that are located across northern Italy have resulted in a cap on the number of tickets, the Reuters news agency reported late last month.
Uncertainty over whether a cable car link to the mountains above Cortina will be ready to transport thousands of ticket holders has resulted in what's being called a preliminary 15% cut in the initial spectator estimates of 200,000, Reuters reported.
"We need to draw a line, we've come too close to the deadline and now risk problems finding drivers and shuttles," Massimo Bortoluzzi, a provincial transport official, told the news agency, also citing delays in preparing collection points for spectators.
Other projects still under construction for Italy's Games are also raising concerns, including the ice hockey arena in Milan that's supposed to welcome National Hockey League players back to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.
How important are ticket sales for Utah's 2034 Winter Games?
Selling tickets will be key to making the $4 billion budget for Utah's 2034 Winter Games. Unlike Games held outside of the United States, all of the money needed is expected to be raised from private sources, largely from the sale of tickets, along with sponsorships and broadcast rights.
Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, is confident Utahns will snap up tickets to what will be Utah's second Olympics.
"We have a large market, a compact Games theater, and we anticipate high demand since it will have been 32 years since (the) Winter Games were hosted in the U.S," Bullock told the Deseret News. "We believe we will sell a very high percentage of our tickets when the time comes."
At the 2002 Winter Games, he said 98.5% of tickets were sold "long in advance."
This time around, Bullock, who served as chief operating officer for the 2002 Games, anticipates about 40% of tickets will be bought by Utahns. Ticket sales are forecast to raise more than $1 billion in 2034.
"We expect that when ticket sales open up to the public, there will be significant enthusiastic purchasing, especially from Utahns," he said.
As for the situation that his Italian counterparts are dealing with, Bullock said, "markets can be very different for ticket sales. Our friends in Italy are in a market that may experience later sales."
