TOKYO: The first tickets for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics went on sale on Thursday, with Japanese residents able to enter a lottery to watch the sport of their choice.

Tickets for the 33 sports range from the cheapest general tickets at 2,500 yen ($23) to an eye-watering 300,000 yen ($2,730) for the best seats at the opening ceremony.

Those lucky enough to score the best seats for the showcase men’s 100m final will pay 130,000 yen ($1,200).

But half of all tickets will be priced at 8,000 yen ($73) or less and special tickets priced at 2,020 yen ($18) are available for families resident in Japan with children, senior citizens, and people with impairments.

Prices for domestic residents are “about the same as London 2012 but a little higher than the 2016 Rio Games,” Yuko Hayakawa, senior 2020 marketing official, told AFP.

The lottery -- only for residents of Japan during an initial period -- runs until May 28, with successful applicants notified on June 20 and payment due a fortnight later.

The website saw high demand upon opening with a queue system in place even though tickets are not sold on a first-come first-served basis and everyone entering the lottery by May 28 having an equal chance of scooping tickets.

Overseas applicants will be able to snap up tickets from June 15 via special “Authorised Ticket Resellers” in each country.

Organisers have not offered a precise number of tickets available as various stadium configurations are still being finalised with just less than 450 days to go until the opening ceremony.

But they said it would be roughly the same as the 7.8 million tickets they estimated when bidding for the right to host the Games.

Of these tickets, an estimated 70-80 percent would be allotted to Japanese residents with the rest going to overseas fans.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from July 24 to Aug 9.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019