Expect to Pay Dearly at Games in Barcelona : Olympics: Rooms are as scarce as tickets for opening and closing ceremonies and big events.

Barcelona on $500 a day?

For the average U.S. tourist, that will be the approximate cost of attending the 1992 Summer Olympics, July 25-Aug. 9, in the Catalan region of Spain.

But buyer beware: That estimate does not include first-class air fare, tickets to opening and closing ceremonies and other popular events, meals at five-star restaurants or even accommodations within an hour of Barcelona.

Then again, at that price neither will one have to sleep in a tent, eat paella and beans out of a can and attend only demonstration roller hockey games.

Tickets go on sale today through the U.S. Olympic Committee’s authorized travel company, Olson Travelworld of Manhattan Beach. Some prices, though, might make Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon wince.

Even if tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies are available--hardly a cinch, considering that fewer than half of the 60,000 seats at Montjuic Stadium will be sold to the public, and 80% of those have been allocated to the host country--they will cost $100, $200 or $500.

Tickets for track and field competition, also scheduled at Montjuic Stadium, are equally scarce. But they seem reasonable by comparison. For morning sessions, they will cost $13, $25 or $39. For evening sessions, they will cost $28, $50 or $73. The exception is the final day, when tickets will sell for $34, $62 or $90.

Gymnastics tickets can be bought for $50 or $78; basketball tickets for $39, $73 or $101. At the other end of the scale, however, tickets for events such as field hockey are priced at $8 and $10.

Don Williams, managing director of Olson’s Olympic division, said the United States received about 14% of the tickets available to the general public from Barcelona’s Olympic Organizing Committee (COOB).

“I felt COOB was pretty fair,” he said. “When we told them we didn’t want as many tickets in some sports that are extremely popular in the rest of the world, such as soccer, but that we wanted more in sports such as track and field and swimming, they were accommodating.”

Williams said that Olson expects to meet between 80% and 90% of the ticket buyers’ first or second requests, but he suggested that their chances are better if they try to attend a cross-section of events.

“People should try for a variety,” he said. “They should see a basketball game and a gymnastics session, but they should also check out the shooting and the rowing. I think they’ll have a great Olympic experience.”

Not so great are the prices for accommodations in Barcelona, but even complaints from the International Olympic Committee and COOB have failed to provide much relief.

About 400,000 tourists are expected to attend the Olympics in a city that has only 28,000 hotel beds. Of those beds, all but 5,600 are committed to sponsors, the media, VIPs and IOC members. When construction went forward on only three of the seven new hotels that were planned to open before 1992, even sponsors were forced to rent 11 cruise ships to dock in the harbor for their guests.

Hotels in the city exploited the situation by increasing their rates by about $200 a night. Pressure from Barcelona’s two most influential citizens, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Mayor Pascal Maragall, prompted them to relent somewhat. But they are still charging $450 a night for a five-star hotel, $400 for a four-star and $225 for a three-star. That is for single occupancy.

Williams said Olson Travelworld began seeking alternatives two years ago, booking resort properties an hour to the north of Barcelona in Lloret de Mar and an hour to the south in Salou. There are several packages offered, ranging per person from $2,290 for five days to $7,490 for 21 days. That includes rooms, breakfast and bus transportation to and from venues in Barcelona, but it does not include air fare or tickets to events.

Among others offering packages are Track & Field News in Mountain View, Calif. Publisher Ed Fox said that the magazine went through Olson’s to arrange for two- or three-week stays in Solau for 600 persons.

The prices were set by Olson’s, but Fox said: “We expect to be able to provide the track and field tickets that we need.”

For those who prefer sleeping in tents, the Spanish tourism office in New York reports that there are hundreds of campsites within 15 miles of Barcelona.