Although the 2028 Olympics are still two years away, Los Angeles organizers have already sold more than 6 million tickets.The figure, announced Friday, represents more than half of the total LA28 inventory, and has left many fans wondering whether they’ll be able to score a seat at the Games.The answer, for now, is that they can get tickets, but they’ll have to wait, then act quickly — and pay. After a second sales phase closed on Thursday, organizers said that the next opportunity to buy will come in 2027.The primary route to Olympics tickets at that point will be a first-come, first-served sale to the general public, but a resale market will also emerge. The following is a guide to those avenues and more as 2028 comes into focus.A three-time Olympic gold medalist's view on "success" might not be what you thinkElise DevlinHow to get 2028 Olympics ticketsAfter two lottery-based phases in 2026, LA28 ticketing will transition to a system with fewer restrictions, and will fall into a few familiar buckets.General-public sale: On a to-be-determined date in 2027, organizers will release some (not all) of the remaining tickets. Fans will log into an online portal, likely enter a digital queue, and get access to whatever tickets remain available when they get through the queue. The rest of the tickets will then be released in batches over the coming months leading into the Games.Resale market: Also sometime in 2027, LA28 will launch a “verified resale network” — a modified version of the secondary market that exists for most sporting events in the United States. Fans will be able to buy (and sell) tickets on a variety of third-party platforms, but on three “verified” platforms — an official LA28 site, plus Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets — every ticket purchased will come with a guarantee of delivery. More details are below.Hospitality: Those who don’t want to wait for 2027, or who want more than a standard ticket, can buy hospitality packages anytime. They’re currently available for more than 30 sports, but beware: They’ll cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars beyond the standard ticket prices.There could be other targeted sales over the next two years. “We’re still thinking through the overall plan,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28’s SVP of Games delivery revenue, told The Athletic this week.There will also be tickets made available to certain groups, such as corporations or local organizations via LA28’s Community Ticket Program. And if you’d like to experience the Games while working for free, volunteer applications are now open.But there will be no more random draws for Olympic ticket access — only for the Paralympics. For most fans, the best bet between now and July 2028 will be the general-public sale or the secondary market.When will the next sales phase start, and how will it work?We don’t yet have a date or details, but it will be akin to FIFA’s first-come, first-served sale of 2026 World Cup tickets this past spring — hopefully without the technical glitches.“It won’t be every ticket available at once,” Katz-Mayfield said. But there will be a hefty batch released when sales re-open, then “a steady flow from then until Games-time, and through Games-time,” she added.That means that fans, after signing up for a “LA28 ID,” will digitally maneuver for a spot near the front of a virtual line at the to-be-determined date and time. “This isn’t your only chance. There will be tickets available over time; you don’t have to hit the second we open,” Katz-Mayfield clarified, but getting into the ticketing portal as early as possible on that date will give fans the best chance at the most coveted tickets.Others will have to wait on holding screens for an unknown amount of time. “We’re trying to not have queues that last for hours on end, like we’ve seen in other cases,” Katz-Mayfield said. But the multi-step process “helps protect from bots and brokers, and other unwanted technology hitting our site,” she explained. The wait times also help ensure that the site doesn’t get overwhelmed by demand.After braving the queues, fans will be able to select from the events with remaining inventory, choose between the categories still available, put tickets in their digital carts, and check out.Over 6 million tickets have sold, organizers said, but fans will still have a chance to buy through future ticket phases and a resale market, expected in 2027. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)What tickets will be available?Tickets to every sport, and perhaps even every event, will be available at some point in 2027, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be available when you get access.In April and again this summer, tickets for popular events and those in cheaper categories sold very quickly. Several hours after the “Visa Presale” opened on July 29, around 20 sports, including gymnastics and swimming, had no listings. By the end of the sales phase this week, more than 40 of the 50-plus sports had run dry; fewer than 10 still had tickets listed, according to several fans who were randomly selected for the opportunity to purchase.Inventory will be replenished when the third sales phase opens in 2027, but the purchasing patterns will probably be similar — unless LA28 adjusts prices.How much do tickets cost?Organizers have not released a comprehensive price catalog, but The Athletic, via screen recordings, screenshots and information from fans, revealed many of the prices in late July.They range from $28 (for the least desirable seats at lower-profile events) to $5,519 (for a prime seat at the Opening Ceremony), though most of the one million tickets priced at $28 sold back in April.“Nearly 50 percent” of tickets will cost less than $200, organizers have said; but for over 60 events, the top ticket costs more than $1,000.The prices could also rise in 2027. Organizers have not ruled out dynamic pricing. “We’re gonna look at all of our data and figure out how we go forward,” Katz-Mayfield said. But they did not raise any prices between the first sales phase in April and the second in July.Is there a limit on how many tickets I can buy?Nope, not anymore.There was a 12-per-person cap across the two early sales phases, but that will be lifted next year, organizers said Friday.Won’t that allow brokers to buy up thousands of tickets and price-gouge?Yes, and LA28’s rationale is that even if there were a hard cap, brokers would find a way to evade it.“You’re gonna see that no matter what. Brokers are incredibly sophisticated,” Katz-Mayfield said. “They’re both intelligent and have very sophisticated technology. So, with the best plans in place — whether that’s strategic in terms of capping, or the technology itself — brokers find ways.“For us,” she continued, “uncapping is more about ensuring that fans have access to what they need.” A 12-ticket limit across all events would prevent some fans from planning family trips, buying on behalf of friends, or attending with larger groups. Without a cap, all of that — including large-scale resale operations — will be possible.The next phase will have no cap on the number of tickets a fan can buy. It’s “about ensuring that fans have access to what they need,” says LA28’s Allison Katz-Mayfield. (Michael Kappeler / picture alliance via Getty Images)How many 2028 Olympics tickets are left?There are probably around 4 million that haven’t yet been sold.An LA28 spokesperson told The Athletic last month that, of the 14 million tickets that organizers will ultimately sell, three quarters (roughly 10.5 million) are for the Olympics and a quarter are for the Paralympics (roughly 3.5 million). If 6 million-plus Olympics tickets have already been sold, less than 5 million — but definitely still millions — are left.Exact numbers are fluid, because venue configurations are still being finalized. And they include hospitality packages. But organizers say that more standard inventory for every sport will be made available in 2027.And some of the 6 million-plus that were sold this year will eventually be available on resale sites, albeit likely at higher prices.How will the resale market work?It will be very similar to, say, buying NFL tickets.If you can’t get what you want in the first-come, first-served sale, sometime in 2027, you’ll be able to go to LA28’s official resale site, or to Ticketmaster or Sports Illustrated Tickets. Every ticket listed on those three sites will be verified by LA28, which has signed commercial partnerships with those third-party platforms. Organizers will “make sure that the ticket exists, the ticket is owned by that individual (selling it),” Katz-Mayfield explained. “And then when the sale happens, it’s all back through our system, and the tickets get delivered (to the buyer) through our system.”You could also go to other popular sites such as StubHub or SeatGeek. But on those platforms — which don’t have partnerships with LA28 — resellers can list tickets without actually owning them. Most tickets purchased on those sites do ultimately get delivered, but a small minority of buyers never get them and show up to events without a way to enter.This was an issue throughout the World Cup. “There was a small subset of fans who didn’t have the experience they wanted and had to get a refund,” StubHub CEO Eric Baker said on an earnings call this month.As for resale prices, those are set by sellers and depend on supply and demand. There won’t be any restrictions on markups. “In the U.S.,” Katz-Mayfield confirmed, “it’s a free market.”Will LA28 charge resale fees like FIFA did?Yes, almost certainly. This is standard practice on the secondary market, which is relatively unregulated in the United States.On its 2026 World Cup ticket resale marketplace,