OlymPicks: Ticket Rumors Abound, NHL to Make Final Decision

With the Tokyo Olympics reaching the finish line, fans of Olympics Sports don't have to wait for too long: The Winter Olympics in Beijing is finally about to kick off in less than six months! Most exciting of all, we may finally getting an idea of how and when we can buy tickets... or are we?

When can I buy tickets?

In the past couple of days, multiple Chinese blogs have been reporting recently that ticketing sales for 2022 Beijing Olympics are expected to open as soon as December – or if not, then at the latest in January 2022. We have not been able to trace this information to an official source, but the official Olympic Website states that: "Considering the continually evolving situation regarding COVID-19, further updates on ticketing are not expected until later this year."

We will keep you posted as soon as there has been any update. Whether there will be a lot of tickets available or not is up to the development of the pandemic, so be prepared if you cannot get into the stadium to cheer for your favorite team, and just know you can always watch the games at home.

How much will a ticket cost?

The prices for hot events are expected to range from RMB 150-1500, while the tickets to regular events are will be cheaper, ranging from RMB 50-500. The ticket prices are the highest for the opening and closing ceremonies with a range of RMB 700-5000

When is the Opening Ceremony？

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will start at 7.30 pm on Feb 4 on Friday. The National Stadium will become the spot to host the closing ceremony on Feb 20 on Sunday. Beijing will also become the first city to both hold a Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics.

How will COVID-19 affect the Winter Olympics in Beijing?

The Tokyo Olympics were unprecedented in that very few spectators (and in some cases, none at all) were allowed to attend the games in person. Beijing announcing it will sell tickets (if true) seems to imply that people will be allowed to attend, but there will be strict measures in place for spectators nonetheless.

The city will implement strict quarantine measures that prohibit athletes from any direct contact with referees, spectators, or journalists. Expect to see athletes giving interviews from behind plastic walls and speaking through microphones.

NHL will-they-won't-they continues on

If there is anything fans are excited about for this round of winter Olympics, that would be hockey. The NHL, however, has still not decided whether to join winter Olympics or not as it has health concerns regarding the pandemic. That's after much meandering on the question of whether to let players participate even before the pandemic hit. 

But with the Jon Cooper, who won back-to-back Stanly Cup championships as head coach for Tampa Bay Lightning, being named as a coach for Team Canada, many fans have had high hopes that the NHL will compete and some have been wanting to watch the face-off between Canada and U.S.A. Historically, Canada has the world’s most competitive hockey team, but the USA-Canada hockey rivalry has become more heated in the past two decades, with the most recent medal for the U.S at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, when they took home a silver.

Now, the NHL has indicated they will reveal their final decision on whether to join the Olympics or not at the end of this month, and hockey fans will be able to find out if they can indulge in the excitement to watch some of the best hockey players compete in China's capital.

Read: OlymPicks: Pin Your Olympic Memories With These Exquisite Widgets

Images: Unsplash, 东方IC, Renminwang, Weibo