Over a million people nationwide logged on to the 2020 Tokyo Games website Thursday to see if they had secured seats at their favorite events through the Olympic ticket lottery.
More than 7.5 million people registered for a Tokyo 2020 ID to enter the lottery before the May 28 deadline, according to a spokesperson for the Tokyo Organising Committee. Ticket winners are required to submit payment by 11:59 p.m. on July 2 unless they wish to opt out and forfeit all of the tickets they won, the spokesperson explained.
At around 10 a.m. on Thursday, the day the results were announced, the 2020 official ticket website was backed up with more than 1.1 million people waiting to access the site and had a wait time of more than an hour. Many took to Twitter to express their frustration, with some even questioning how many people actually won tickets and why Tokyo taxpayers were denied the opportunity to attend an event funded largely by their taxes. The spokesperson said that, while the number of people who won tickets will not be publicly released, the number of tickets sold and how many remain won't be certain until the deadline to submit payments has passed.