Rio Launches First Physical Ticket Stores for Olympics

The first physical ticket offices for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have opened.

Tickets were already available online but they are now for sale at two offices in shopping malls in wealthy areas of the city.

In the next few weeks, organizers plan to open more than 30 ticketing centers in Rio, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasilia and Manaus, where matches of Olympic soccer will take place.

According to ticketing director Donovan Ferreti, there are still 1.8 million tickets available. Prices start at about 40 reais ($12), though customers purchasing tickets on Monday said prices for some final events reached into the hundreds of dollars.

Ferreti says 4.2 million tickets have been sold so far, about 70 percent of the total tickets.