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Tickets for the first stop of the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup Series in Shanghai, China sold out within minutes of going on sale last week. This has led to an active resale market for the seats, tickets going for 20x, or more, their face value on secondary sales sites.
The meet will be held at the SPD Bank Oriental Sports Center, which boasts a 5,000 seat indoor pool, a 5,000 seat outdoor pool, and an 18,000 seat arena.
Original ticket prices ranged from 55 yuan ($7.79) to 688 yuan ($97.45), but even on American resale site StubHub, they are now listed from $267 for upper tier tickets to $375 for floor tickets, with reports of even higher prices on Chinese sites.
The meet will include a number of the biggest stars from the Olympics, like Leon Marchand of France and Kaylee McKeown of Australia, but the primary draw for Chinese sporting fans is a glimpse of Pan Zhanle, who set the World Record in the 100 free at the Olympic Games in the 100 free – arguably the premier World Record in the men’s side of the sport.
While the broader global swimming community saw China fail to meet the billing they earned via a breakthrough performance at the 2023 World Championships, including the likes of Qin Haiyang, domestically China saw the salvation of two big wins: Pan in the 100 free and the Chinese men’s 400 medley relay, that did the previously-undoable and won the 400 medley relay over the Americans.
Zooming out more broadly: the rapid sale of tickets will be encouraging for World Aquatics to take more future events to China. The World Cup Series seems to be on a path of alternating between tighter regional groupings. After a three-stop series in Europe last year, this year the meets will be held in Shanghai; Incheon, South Korea; and Singapore, with over $1 million in prize money available.
Track & field’s Diamond League, meanwhile, will offer more than $9 million in prize money in 2025. Significantly bigger crowds (and streaming spectators) have allowed for bigger purses. Diamond League meets in early 2024 sold out stadiums north of 40,000 seats on multiple occasions in both Europe and Asia.
While the venue in Shanghai is a far cry from those stadiums, a sellout (and demand beyond the sellout) is a valuable first step. While World Aquatics rarely releases specific attendance figures for anything, crowd shots from last year’s meet indicate a decent fill, but with large portions of the arenas draped off and lots of empty seats during finals sessions.
It will now be up to World Aquatics to figure out how to present a format and a show that will carry that enthusiasm and format forward to future sits and future series.