Attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi could cost you about $10,000 -- "or even more, depending on the kind of package you end up getting," according to Anna Arutunyan of the MOSCOW NEWS. Jet Set Sports, the official partner of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, "has released prices for ticket and hotel packages on its site, www.jetsetsports.ru." Tickets and four nights in a hotel for the hockey tournament go for 266,642 rubles ($8,600) for one person and 445,476 rubles ($14,370) for two. The most expensive week-long package costs 440,000 rubles ($13,622) for one person and 670,000 rubles ($20,743) for two. The cheapest cost just more than 81,000 ($2,613), "but a spokesperson for Jet Set Sports could not say what was included in the cost." What the package "certainly does not include is airfare or train tickets to Sochi." Current dates for Aeroflot go for about 9,500 rubles ($300) roundtrip, "while the cost of train tickets totals around" 13,000 rubles ($420). Air tickets for int'l guests "could hike up the tab further by hundreds of dollars" (MOSCOW NEWS, 6/10). The MOSCOW TIMES reported "Olympics-lovers thinking of making their own arrangements will find it difficult." Evgeny Kaplun, a central Sochi hotel manager, said that while prices for hockey matches on the official Olympics website range from 38,000-182,000 rubles ($1,176-$5,634), "every hotel in Sochi has signed over all hotel rooms to package tour operators for the duration of the games." Kaplun said that within a 50km radius of Sochi "it is impossible to book a room during the games without a middleman" (MOSCOW TIMES, 6/10).
