If you, like me are feeling the post Olympic blues, then fear not. Even though we have just witnessed an incredible summer of sport, there are still some brilliant opportunities to see live sport in all corners of the world over the coming weeks. And the good news is, I have found six upcoming sporting events where tickets are still available to suit all budgets. So, let's take a look at what you could be soaking up in these incredible destinations.
The Best Six Upcoming Sporting Events You Can Get Tickets For
Witness the US Open in New York
How about a trip to New York to witness the US Open? The good news is, tickets to the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year, are still available.
The tennis event at Paris 2024 brought us unforgettable moments. Andy Murray ending his incredible career, not before a couple of sensational final match comebacks alongside Dan Evans; 'Nadalcaraz' putting smiles on the faces of everyone, Djokovic finally getting his hands on a Gold medal and China's Zheng Qinwen becoming the first Asian women to win an Olympic Gold in tennis.
All in all Roland Garros, the home of the French Open in France's Capital, was the place to be during the Olympics. So, if that has left you gasping for more tennis action of the highest standard, then the US Open is a great option at the end of August and beginning of September. Luckily, if you are tempted, it is one of the Grand Slams that doesn't operate its ticketing system by either a ballot as Wimbledon does (and my word, surely one day I'll be successful) or completely sell out all stadium court tickets within hours, as is often the case for the French Open.
You can regularly get US Open tickets, even on the day, but prices do vary. Last year, you could pick up a ticket for under $50 for the early round day-sessions, where as this year it's a little more expensive. Probably the post Olympic effect.
The US Open uses Ticketmaster to sell its tickets and it's important to remember each day is sold in two sessions. A day session and a night session. Both are brilliant, but there is no doubt the atmosphere intensifies during the night sessions. As well as the stadium tickets, Ground Passes are also a great way to experience the US Open, this year they are selling at a higher than usual price, and still give you access to stadium courts, just not Arthur Ashe.
The early rounds will provide the best value ahead at the US Open. For the tournament's first session, the day session on Monday August 26th you can get tickets for the Arthur Ashe Stadium for $224. The Night Session on Day One will set you back $138. It's a similar cost for Day Two.
Ground Passes work well if you want to experience a full day at the US Open. Not only do you get a ticket to roam around the grounds taking in all the action on the outer courts, plus all the fan activations taking place but the ticket also gives you access to all Stadium Courts apart from Arthur Ashe. So you'll be able to find a seat within Louis Armstrong Court & Grandstand. That's pretty good value for money given the variety you have to explore.
Ground passes for the first week range from $182 to $250. A little on the expensive side (for comparison you can get Ground Passes for Wimbledon for £30, albeit, after queueing up) but still, a major tournament shouldn't be charging over $150 for Grounds Passes in my opinion.
Ground Passes entry begins at 11am and here is where to find the ticket that suits you best.
If those prices put you off slightly from the thought of attending the US Open, after all, if you are travelling to New York and have flights and accommodation to think about, here's another option for you that fits the bill.
One way to do the US Open at very low cost is to visit during the Fan Week. It's free to attend and takes places the week before the main draw begins. Free to attend you say? I do indeed... and it's well worth it. It's the week where you can casually walk into Arthur Ashe to see the players play practice matches, get involved in meet & greets and witness Q&A sessions with some of the star players around the grounds. It's a brilliant way to experience a US Open without the cost. There are ticketed experiences also available during Fan Week if you wanted to upgrade your experience. More info can be found here.
You still need to order a ticket for Fan Week but there is no charge to it. It runs from Monday 19th August until Sunday the 25th August and you can pick up tickets here.
Visit Paris for the Paralympic Games
If you were unable to make it to the Paris Olympic Games and watched on from afar with great envy, there is still a chance to soak up the incredible city of Paris during a major sporting event and it's just around the corner. The Paralympic Games gets underway on August 28th and will run until September 8th.
It's another chance (or excuse) to visit Paris whilst there's huge excitement in the city and there are still plenty of ticket options available.
As you may have seen, the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games was a spectacular showcase along the Seine River. It was the first time in history an Olympic Games opening Ceremony took place outside of a stadium. Whilst the Paralympics will be slightly different, this time concentrating around the Champs-Elysées and Place de la Concorde, it still promises to be quite the spectacle and once again sees an Opening Ceremony take place outside of a stadium, so a great chance to see the city at the same time. There will be 4,400 athletes taking part in the opening ceremony which will take place on the 28th August. Tickets for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony are selling for EURO150 and are available here.
For less of the pomp, and indeed ceremony... literally, and you actually want to watch some sport, then there are plenty of really good ticketing options available that will enable you to be flexible and watch a whole host of the sporting action across the Paralympic Games in Paris.
Most of the sports are offering tickets for EURO15 for single sessions and The Discovery Pass is a good option to experience multiple events in one day and is available for just EURO24. It's with the Discovery Pass you can watch up to 7 sports in one day. Presently, it's just the Discovery Pass Paris South that has tickets remaining.
You can find tickets that suit you here.
Visit Italy and experience its most loved sporting occasion
Milan is calling, and when it does, it's make sense to answer. I say Milan, I actually mean Monza, but fear not, Milan is a great base whilst you experience the Italian Grand Prix with Monza just a train ride away.
Here's a thought. Formula One as an Olympic sport? I can't help but think it would a brilliant addition to the Games, and for the sport itself which loves to attract new audiences (Drive to Survive on Netflix, anyone?) and you can't reach a more broader audience than the Olympics. Here me out here...
The sport is already set up for the Olympics. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals with the top three drivers of each race making their way to the podium. Tick.
Given F1 has, in recent years, started to experiment with shorter form races with the Sprint Races, the 'Golf Medal Race' could be one hell of a sporting spectacle after a series of qualifying races. Tick.
Most host cities these days will have access to a Formula One certified circuit, and if the host city itself doesn't, that's okay. We now live in a world where certain Olympic sports don't actually need to take place in the host city. Paris is over 15,000 kilometres away from Tahiti, where the Paris 2024 surfing competition took place. Or, you create a spectacular street circuit around the host city. Look at what Las Vegas has done in creating a circuit past some of the city's most famous sights. As an example, when London hosts another Games one day, you either have the opportunity of a street circuit around the Capital's streets, or you use Silverstone. Simple. Should Milan host the Games, or Rome, you use Monza. Tick.
Anyway, back to the question at hand. You need a fix of live sport after sitting on the sofa for two weeks suddenly becoming an expert in Mountain Biking and Kayak Cross during the Olympics. The Italian Grand Prix has your answer and there's good news, tickets are still available.
I like F1 races because of the fact the amount of variety in choosing a ticket is always so good. Yes the race, the main event is on a Sunday but if budgets don't stretch that far, you can also look at just attending on a qualifying day to bring costs down.
For the Italian Grand Prix, there are a range of tickets still available including on race day.
And here are my favourite options.
You can get a hospitality ticket for Sunday only which gets you access to the Monza Village, which can be found in the centre of the circuit for £1,610. That also includes a Grandstand seat to watch the race from. The Monza Village offers so much as you would expect when buying a hospitality ticket from food and drinks, a host of seating options and entertainment.
If you are travelling to Italian Grand Prix and want a good accommodation option, there is a pre-pitched camping ticket available and it's a brilliant way to experience the very best of a full F1 weekend. You can get a Thursday-Sunday ticket for £560 which will give you your tent, complete with airbeds, bedding, breakfast, dinner, hot showers, toilets, a bar on site and more. That's really good value for two people. The campsite is a 30-minute walk to the circuit but to have everything taken care for you is a superb advantage when staying for multiple days to witness the fastest race on the F1 calendar!
Both the Monza Village and camping tickets are available here if you want to book yourself a trip to Milan and experience the Italian Grand Prix at Monza!
Travel to Scotland and soak up the Highland Games
If you did miss out on the Olympics in Paris, here's a show-stopping alternative, with a Royal twist. The Braemar Gathering is the place to be in Scotland in September. Think Olympics in a more rural setting but with the same intensity.
The Braemar Gathering is a special event for Scotland and is also visited by the British Royal Family. Known locally as "The Games" it is a must-visit if you are visiting the Highlands of Scotland and it's where you'll find traditional events such as tossing the caber, throwing of the hammer, tug o war, running and jumping and the hill race are complimented by pipe bands, solo piping and highland dancing. It really is the Scottish equivalent of the Olympics.
You can get your tickets to the Braemar Games here and you'll find it's a ver affordable sporting event to get to with General Admission tickets priced at just £15 whilst allocated seated tickets are just £25.
The Braemar Games are very rural in their location so you'll really need a car to attend as you may find yourself driving a fair didstance from your hotel in cities such as Inverness or Aberdeen, but to combine a day at this historic sporting event whilst exploring wider Scotland is a great day out.
Explore London and the BMW PGA Championship
If you ever needed an excuse to visit London! But if you did, and you love golf, then this is for you.
The BMW PGA Championship is held at the DP World Tour's HQ, Wentworth each September and sees the very best from the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour battle it out. Wentworth is a short train ride from London, so this is your perfect opportunity to take in the UK's Capital city as well as enjoy one of the UK's stand-out golf tournaments.
Taking place from the 19th - 22nd September the BMW PGA Championship still has tickets available, although not for Saturday.
First of all, the tournament attracts the biggest payers on the DP World Tour and a few from the PGA Tour, so no matter what day you go, you'll find value for money.
For tickets here is what you are playing with from a General Admission ticket point of view. Many of the other options such as 18th green-side and Championship Club tickets have already sold out.
On Wednesday September 18th, it's Pro-Am day and tickets are available for £33
On Thursday September 19th, first round tickets are available for £45
On Friday September 20th, you could be at the second round for £50
On Saturday September 21st, General Admission has sold out, but there are 18th green tickets available, at a cost of £570.
Sunday's Final Day is a must at the BMW PGA Championship, and you can still be there with a General Admission ticket which is selling at £65
Experience Berlin by immersing yourself in tennis and marathon running
Berlin's incredible summer of sport continues this September with tennis and running being the focal point after the city hosted the European Championships and final, which saw Spain beat England.
Berlin's summer of sport continues with Tennis, in the name of the Laver Cup. And it's a great time to visit Berlin as the city's famous Berlin Marathon is also taking place at the same time, meaning you can follow up a day of tennis action with a walk around the German Capital's streets cheering on those incredible marathon runners along the way. Is there a better way to explore a city than to walk around finding great locations to cheer your support?
The Laver Cup is one of Roger Federer's inventions, who was looking to create a team tennis event where Europe take on the the rest of the World. Rafa Nadal has already confirmed it will be his next event post the Olympics having pulled out of the US Open so, should he be fit enough (granted, it may be a big 'should' but you are talking to the man who flew 10 hours to Las Vegas to see Nadal play, and for 10 hours I was dreading landing, turning on my phone and being greeted to Sin City with a notification on my phone that read something along the lines of "Rafa Nadal pulls out of Netflix Slam in Vegas". Thankfully he did play, and the 19 hours of flying there and back was completely worth it.
Representing Europe at 2024's Laver Cup will be Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Danill Medvedev and Rafa Nadal.
As for the World Team, Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton have all been named with two more players yet to be announced.
For the first day of play's Session One, the cheapest tickets you'll find at this stage are EURO324 with court-side front row tickets close to EURO2,000. Session One includes two singles matches.
Session Two, which will be one singles match and one doubles match is a little more expensive at EURO438.
The second and third day's play, which is a Saturday and Sunday as you can imagine sees the prices increase. The cheapest options, and it's limited, are around EURO565 for Saturday's Session Three. During Session Three you will witness two singles matches whilst for Session Four on Saturday evening, you will get one singles match and one doubles match. Tickets for Session Four are selling for over a thousand Euros.
Sunday's Session Five, which includes one doubles match and up to three singles matches is a little better with plenty of tickets still available at EURO362.
So that's the next few weeks of sporting action to enjoy and don't forget to tell me which sporting event you want to attend based on the above.
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