After 3.2m Sales, Tokyo 2020 To Hold Additional Olympic Ticket Lotteries

According to the Organising Committee, around 3.2 million tickets were sold in the opening lottery and “hundreds of thousands” of seats for next year’s Olympic Games will be made available in a second ballot.

Tickets for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and finals in several sports are not expected to be included, the Japan Times reported.

The next ballot is set to be held in August, with the potential for another lottery to take place in the autumn.

Tokyo 2020 are not likely to use the first-come, first-served format because of concerns over connection problems owing to the expected heavy traffic.

Over 7.5 million Japanese residents entered the first ballot and millions were left disappointed after failing to secure Olympic tickets.

The official ticketing website was visited more than 24,250,000 times in May as a result of the huge demand.

Tokyo 2020 initially estimated that 7.8 million tickets would be made available for the Olympic Games but it is thought the figure could rise to nine million, according to the Japan Times.

It has not been revealed how many tickets will be on offer in the additional lotteries but Tokyo 2020 ticketing director Hidenori Suzuki said the number would not exceed those purchased in the first phase.

Residents of Japan will still be able to request tickets during the first-come, first-served phase due to begin in autumn 2019.

The final ticket sales phase is scheduled to start in the spring of 2020, offering first-come, first-served sales for purchasers inside and outside of Japan.

Details are set to be announced at a later date.

People living outside of Japan will first be able to purchase tickets through authorised ticket resellers (ATRs) in their home countries.

ATRs can commence ticket sales from June 15.