admin More than 12 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and Paralympics, which Paris organisers hailed as an “unprecedented success” on Friday.
The total of 12,132,647 tickets for both events represented 95 per cent of the venues’ crowd capacity, according to Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris organising committee.
“We knew how complicated it could be to organise such a large event, and we are now very pleased that everything went smoothly,” Estanguet stated at a news conference in Saint-Denis.
He also noted that the Paris Games established a new benchmark for attendance and engagement. The final evening of Paralympic athletics on 7 September saw 67,500 tickets sold at the Stade de France, marking the highest turnout for any session this summer.
“There was a certain boldness in challenging ourselves to undertake things that had never been done before,” Estanguet remarked, referring to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics held outside stadiums, as well as competitions staged near iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles.
He noted that this innovative approach piqued the interest of the organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Games, who observed the Paris team throughout the summer.
Estanguet also announced that the Paris and Los Angeles organisers will meet several times in the coming months to exchange insights about their respective Games.
“The key message is to be bold and to leverage the unique strengths of their territory,” Estanguet advised. “It’s up to them to identify the main strengths of LA 28 and truly embrace audacity.”
Paris’ uplifting summer of sport will conclude on Saturday with a grand parade along the Champs-Élysées, featuring hundreds of French athletes.
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