I recently visited the Colosseum in Rome, where a tour guide explained about the different seating sections for the elite (senators and the like), nobles, ordinary citizens, and slaves/women. He also talked about the 80 different gates and said that entry "tickets" were numbered by gate. I later found discussion of all this on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum).

The tour made me wonder: what did it cost to go to an event at the Colosseum in Rome in the first century, soon after the Colosseum was built? That slaves and women attended means it was *possible* for people with little wealth to attend, but the existence of the tickets suggests that it wasn't a free-for-all (anybody can just come in). Or was it free, but you had to get a ticket first to prevent running out of spaces?

While some of the events at the Colosseum were discretionary entertainment (so if it was too pricy for some that was ok), others seemed to be designed as public spectacles, like executions. So maybe there were different entry policies for different types of events? After all, a performance venue today doesn't always have one, fixed price.

If there was a cost, I'd like to understand it in relation to other economic aspects. An answer like "N denari" isn't as helpful to me as something like "the cost of a loaf of bread" or "N days' wages for an ordinary citizen", because I don't know very much about ancient Roman economics.
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I have always understood they were free, paid for by the rich elite to woo/placate the general populace - hence the phrase "bread and circuses". According to the Wikipedia article you cite, the various levels were based on rank, not price. And IIRC, women were relegated to the topmost tier in case they got too... friendly.. with the gladiators - women were not all poor! 

**Edit re references** 

It seems even the experts disagree - with themselves! [In this article](http://www.ancient.eu/article/635/) Cartwright states that the games were "probably free", whereas [here](http://www.ancient.eu/Colosseum/) he states that tickets were sold for the Colosseum. Very confusing!
Many (maybe even most) events were free entrance, the entire cost covered by the sponsors (usually politicians, emperors, generals seeking influence, sometimes merchants).  

Seating was assigned based on social status rather than how much one could pay, the better seats going to the higher ranking members of society (and better could mean closer to the imperial lounge rather than better view of the arena).  

The same was generally true for other theaters and arenas, though no doubt sometimes tickets were sold as well (though for what price I couldn't tell, never seen such information. No doubt it'd vary greatly just as it does today).