Coe dreads fans will boycott athletics events at the Paris Olympics because of outrageous ticket prices

World Athletics president Lord Coe fears fans – and athletes – could be priced out of next summer’s Olympics in Paris.

Coe is concerned over sky-high costs, with tickets for an athletics session at the Stade de France costing as much as £850 on the official Paris 2024 website. The cheapest admission for an evening session is £170.

Athletics remains the number one Olympic sport and, after sell-out crowds at August’s World Championships in Budapest, Coe is mindful of the costs.

“These are going to be the most expensive ticket prices in an athletics arena that we have witnessed at an Olympic Games,” he said. “We asked for a balance.

“The most important element here is you want fans in the stadium, you want fans within affordable prices. I know the challenge on a budget – 25 percent of our budget in London was tickets.

“Our ticket strategy was built three years before the Games. We knew more about our fans at the end of that. We had some expensive tickets in there but we also had a lot at affordable prices.

“These are difficult balances for any organising committee, but if I am wearing my World Athletics hat, I don’t want fans being costed out of the stadium and I certainly don’t want athletes and their families being costed out of the stadium.

“If you look throughout an athlete’s career, there are very few athletes that can sit down and say they got in commercial sponsorship more than what their families put in.

“Most are sitting there at the end of a 15-year career and saying it was my families that bore the brunt of what I did, in terms of funding time, commitment, and all the things. I want to be respectful of them, so that’s the challenge.

“We have made the point that these prices are lumpy. In Budapest, we had very affordable price tickets. Tokyo (2025 World Championships) we will make sure we get the same as well.

“There are always going to be premium tickets, but our stadiums must be full of people that love our sport, not people that can afford to get to an Olympics.”