Around 1.3 million tickets sold, stands 85% full

The CEO of the Milano Cortina Foundation Andrea Varnier at a press conference took an initial stock of the Games in the middle of the Olympic calendar

by Marco Bellinazzo

15 February 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

'Milan Cortina Halfway'. Yesterday morning, at a press conference at the Main Media Centre in Milan, the CEO of the Milan-Cortina Foundation, Andrea Varnier, and the Chief Games Operations Officer, Andrea Francisi, drew up a very positive balance of the 2026 Winter Games at the halfway point, especially in the light of the complex organisational machine that has been set in motion to realise the first sustainable and widespread Olympics, with two 'capitals' and a plurality of venues to be held in an Alpine perimeter of 22 thousand square kilometres.

"We are aware that we are pioneers in this Games model. We knew that we had many challenges, and after one week, most of them seem to have been overcome,' remarked Varnier. 'The experience of the widespread Olympics, with all the difficulties of moving people around in geographically complex contexts, has been inorbitally positive. I believe this model can be a reference in the future, especially in the Alps. Even if for us the real challenge was not to operate the transport but to make sure that in each of the places the Olympic atmosphere could be felt, and I believe that anyone who has gone to Bormio, Anterselva or Cortina has experienced this atmosphere'.

The numbers corroborate these perceptions. To the mountain venues, for example, more than 70,000 spectators have been transported so far via the bus and shuttle system set up by the Foundation, with an average waiting time of less than 10 minutes. Even more significant are the ticket office figures. On Friday alone there were 92,500 coupons, with demand growing day by day, especially from the local public, fuelled by the success of the event and also by the Italia Team's victories. Foreigners, on the other hand, bought tickets in advance, mainly from the United States and Northern Europe, to follow the most popular disciplines in each country.

Overall, more than 1.27 million tickets were sold and an average venue occupancy of 85 per cent of the available capacity was recorded.

Bormio, the home of male alpine skiing, leads the ranking with 94.5 per cent occupancy, the Milan arenas (Forum di Assago, Santagiulia and Rho Fiera) are 90 per cent full and Anterselva 88.7 per cent. As far as the disciplines are concerned, somewhat surprisingly for the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering next week a sell-out is expected, speed skating has reached 94%, ski jumping 90% and luge 87% occupancy. These percentages can further improve making the Foundation's ticketing revenue target of over 200 million attainable.

"Sold out is a relative concept, because various factors have to be taken into account depending on the venue, from security to the visibility of the various seats,' said Varnier, who on the price policy, often discussed on the eve of the event due to the onerousness of some events, added: 'Overall, the sales trend confirms that the policy is correct. There are many sessions at affordable prices, then it is normal that there are some more popular sessions with prices in line with the market for major sporting events'.

The six fan villages set up by the Foundation with the support of sponsors during the first week were attended by 150,000 visitors.

Not only live entertainment, however. The Milan Cortina Games are also proving to be a success in terms of television and media engagemet. The Games' digital platform has so far grinded out 46 million social reactions, three million interactions, with a 292% increase in followers and 89 million users between site and app. The Olympics website has reached 7.4 billion social engagement. Broadcasters from Warner Bros. Discovery to Rai (with an average share of 16% and an under-35 share of 20%) are achieving excellent results.

This is not the time, however, to rest. 'We are satisfied,' Varnier concludes, 'but there is still half a way to go and we have to stay focused. The less people talk about us, the happier we are. It means we are doing our job'.