ticket office, an important challenge to bring the public closer to parasport

The sales phase of tailor-made packages for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games ends on Wednesday 15 March, to kick off registrations for the single ticket draw. Meanwhile, the Paralympic Games are patient. The ticket office will only open in the autumn.

In the meantime, initiatives to promote disabled athletes who will shine in the capital in less than a year and a half are multiplying. The first event that will allow this ray of light to be focused: the Paralympic Athletics World Championships, the second largest parasport event in the world after the Paralympic Games, which will be organized in Paris at the Charléty stadium from 8 to 17 July. Whether or not audiences will reach into their pockets to fill the enclosure remains to be seen.

Ignorance, the first obstacle to overcome

“I don’t know yet what I’ll do this summer, but I admit I don’t know the athletes or the disciplines, so it’s unlikely I’ll take a seat”, confesses Benoît, a thirty-year-old sports enthusiast. Same story for Amel, 42, who underlines the lack of identification with these sportsmen: “There are so many different disabilities that it’s hard to navigate”. When asked about the Paralympic Games, Kevin, 31, has trouble projecting himself: “Impossible to know where I’ll be at that moment, but I won’t stop myself from traveling from Paris to assist you. If I’m there, I could go, at the last minute…” For Azha, “It doesn’t matter the sport, it’s the atmosphere that’s interesting. Between Olympic and Paralympic table tennis, for me it’s just the experience and the sport that come first.”

These conflicting testimonies leave room for doubt: will the general public, who know little about disabled athletes and their disciplines, buy tickets to attend a parasport competition? “Spectators were interviewed after the para-cycling world championships at the Vélodrome national de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in October, where the event was accessible for freeexplains Adrien Balduzzi, director of marketing and events at the French Handisport Federation (FFH). We received 8,000 people over the four days, so an average of 2,000 a day. We did a questionnaire: ‘After this experience, would you be willing to pay to participate in this type of competition?’ And people said yes. It shows that there is a prism of knowledge, and after trying, there is a purchase option.” As long as the prices remain affordable.

“When people step foot in it, they’re ready to come back.”

Adrien Balduzzi, FFH Marketing and Events Director

to franceinfo: sports

Organizer of the Para Athletics World Championships, the FFH has decided to set up a paid ticket office, a first in the history of the event. The base price has been set at 15.99 euros for a full-price session (10.99 euros for a reduced price). “Our ultimate goal is to reach 100,000 tickets sold at the end of the competition, therefore 5,000 paying people per seat and a third of the stadium per day to pay”adds Adrien Balduzzi, also director of the Organizing Committee (Comap).

Half of the tickets under 25 euros for the Paralympic Games

The theme is equally crucial for the Paralympic Games in Paris, the first summer edition in history in France. More than three million tickets will go on sale, of which 500,000 for less than 15 euros and more than half for less than 25 euros. A willingness to remain accessible, reaffirmed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), to allow families to participate in the event, in view of “transmission between generations”.

“We are sure there is demand”, says Ludivine Munos, former Paralympic swimmer, 12-time medalist and now head of Paralympic specificities within the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee (Cojo). the Ifop poll carried out in September 2021, which shows that 90% of French people supported the organization of JP in the capital. With a slight nuance: “We must continue to promote our disciplines”.