Update: as of 8:30 on Wednesday morning, all tickets are sold out.
Tickets for the finals sessions of the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix in Mesa, Arizona have sold out on Tuesday. This is no coincidence, as on Monday, Michael Phelps announced that he would return from a brief retirement to race at the meet.
Less than 24 hours after that news broke, tickets for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday’s finals sessions were gone; though, comments by Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman this morning indicate that the winningest Olympian of all time might only swim Thursday and Friday.
There will still be plenty of other swimmers to watch on Saturday, though, including Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers and Katie Ledecky in some of their best events.
With tickets selling for only $10 for finals and $5 for prelims, the opportunity to see Phelps, along with some true swimming superstars at a huge discount leaves little surprise that the approximately 800 tickets available went in a hurry. Meet Director Erin Shields tells us that Saturday’s finals were about 1/2 full before the announcement and the rest were about 1/3 full.
While these sessions all would have likely been sellouts with walk-up tickets, the Phelps factor sparked demand to not miss out on the return of the greatest swimmer of his generation.
Moments before posting, Shields let us know that Saturday’s prelims session had also sold out.
If you’re still interested in purchasing tickets for Thursday and Friday’s prelims, information is available here. As of posting, prelim tickets were still available for all three days of the meet.
I hope lochte and shields swim the 100 fly also, I want to see them battle it out
Has a psych sheet posted? I can’t find one. Also, anyone carrying live results? Meet Mobile, Deck Pass?
Good Luck at Mesa and looking forward to when they come to Charlotte!
Paige
Paige – none of the above yet, but we will put it all up when it is released. Meet doesn’t start for a while, still.
Mesa’s website now says all sessions sold out as of Wed at 8:30 am 🙁
STEP RIGHT UP, STEP RIIIIIIIGHT UP…. come see the 8th wonder of the world…..
Place your bets, thank your host:
50 free: 23.5
100 Free: 53.5
100 fly: 56.7
I am completely guessing since he’s only been working out for a while and is just testing the waters.
Your predictions sound good on paper but for a 52-year-old Michael Phelps.
Lol, you joking?
I’ll take that bet:
50 Free 22.91
100 Free 49.76
100 Fly 52.86
can i just buy tickets at the door
Noelle, as of now it looks like you could buy tickets for Thursday and Friday’s prelims sessions. There’s no more tickets for sale from hosts, though I suppose there could be some second-hand sellers floating around.
ok thanks
there is no prelim session tickets the website says they are sold out can i just but them at the door
Why the surprise that Lochte and Co can’t sell seats? Does no one remember the ridiculous amount of empty seats in Indy last year… Ticket sales seemed to have plummeted without Phelps around…
Why do they prefer to watch a 3 hour boring baseball game rather than watch some of the best swimmers in the world? 🙄
I can’t still understand that.
But I’m not American. 😆
Well last year was a post olympic year so I can see how ticket sales would have gone down. But that’s expected
Why watch a 3 hour boring swim meet when you can watch an exciting baseball game? 🙂 That argument works both ways
Because baseball can be exciting?
Is watching some of the best swimmers swimming not even close to their fastest exciting? 🙂
At least you watch the best swimmers in the world. 🙂
Agreed Bobo, swimming still has a long way to go if those guys alone can’t sell out a venue. Nevertheless exciting weeks ahead.
It wasn’t already sold out before the announcement? Even with Lochte, Adrian, Coughlin and Ledecky in the water? Weird.