Prices for Olympic Figure Skating Tickets Skyrocket

“I am fortunate to get hold of a ticket.”

Roh Sang-hee, the mother of Korean figure skater Kwak Min-jeong, 16, who will compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, said she was relieved after getting a ticket to see the short program a month.

Though her seat is far from ideal, Roh said, “I paid 1.5 million won (1,291 U.S. dollars) for two tickets. It’s quite expensive but considering how many people failed to get tickets, I was very fortunate.”

Ticket scalpers are having a field day in women’s figure skating thanks to world champion Kim Yu-na of Korea.

An admission ticket for the short program opening Feb. 24 is 50 dollars for a D-section seat, 150 dollars for one in C section, 250 dollars for a B-section seat, and 420 dollars for a seat in the top A section.

A ticket for the free skating event starting Feb. 26 is 150 dollars for a C seat, 275 dollars for a B seat, and 450 dollars for an A seat.

All of the tickets quickly sold out, however. Buying tickets on Internet auction sites or turning to scalpers on the day of the competition is the only way to see the events live. For those with shallow pockets, neither is a viable option since ticket prices have jumped as high as 1100 percent.

Ticket prices for women’s figure skating in the Olympics on eBay also soared yesterday. The best seats were going for 1,736 dollars for the short program and 3,499 dollars for free skating. B seats for the short program were traded at 1,344 dollars.

Reflecting Kim’s immense popularity, a Korean restaurant in the Vancouver area is advertising a ticket for the free skating competition priced at 5,000 Canadian dollars (4,682 U.S. dollars), or 11 times the face value.

One flier hawked four tickets for the free skating event, simply giving a contact number for interested buyers without naming the price.

The most expensive tickets in the Vancouver Olympics are for the ice hockey competition. Four tickets for A seats were selling for 21,866 U.S. dollars as of Tuesday.

creating@donga.com