Reader Kevin J. writes of this morning's ticket sale for U2 at Soldier Field on Sept. 12:
I know I won't be the only one bothering you with this today but I would like for someone to tell me how a 70,000 seat concert is sold out in 5 minutes. I got through to Livenation .com at 10:00 .When I got connected to Ticketmaster it was approximately 10:05. I requested $95.00 tickets, and was told none were available . The same happened within 5 minutes for every price ticket I tried. They were nice enough to direct me to an auction were I could no doubt get tickets at a higher price . I am through with any Live Nation concert. We really need Ticketmaster, and LiveNation to merge like a hole in the head.. The funniest part is I'm really more interested in seeing Snow Patrol than U2. They couldn't have sold out The House Of Blues as fast as they just sold out Soldier Field. Thanks for letting me vent.
Sure enough, I just checked on the availability of two top-tier tickets at the $250 price via Ticketmaster.com, and was directed to... this Ticketmaster auction site, which is inviting me to bid on either the "Zone Backstage Tour Experience" (starting bid: $1,515) or the plain old "Zone Experience" ticket (starting bid: $255).
Since I cannot double back in time to the official 10 a.m. on sale, there's no way of knowing if potential ticket buyers were automatically directed to the auction site while face-price tickets were still available, as was the case with the controversial Bruce Springsteen concerts. But in every other way, it seems as if Ticketmaster/Live Nation are operating with business as usual for the U2 shows, which means gouging fans for every dollar the company (and the band) can get.
And still Bono hasn't deigned to offer any public comment on the merger.
Update: A new Web site describing itself as "a search engine for tickets--think of us like Google for concert tickets," www.fansnap.com, already has nearly 1,300 listings for "secondary market sales" of U2 tickets in Chicago via scalpers using sites such as StubHub, TicketNetwork and eBay. Top price: $16,500 for a general admission floor seat.
No, that was not a typo: $16,500 via StubHub. Recession? What recession? (At the low end of the spectrum, there also are seats starting at $81.)
Update: And now Live Nation announces a SECOND U2 show at Soldier Field on Sept. 13. Tickets for that show go on sale a week from today, Monday, April 6, at 10 a.m. Hope you didn't spring for those $16,500 tickets in the time between the sell-out and this announcement!
You may be interested in this article. All proceeds from Red Zone auction tickets are going to charity.
http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=5467
Proceeds from the original sale of those tickets goes to charity. Proceeds from the secondary-market sale goes to the secondary marketer... better known as the scalper.
The whole thing is a real crock of expletive. I tried and of course failed miserably to get tickets... any tickets. I thought there's no way the pre-sale that I didn't pay $50 for would completely destroy any chance I had at getting a ticket -- obviously I was wrong.
There should have been a limit of 4 (maybe 6) tickets per purchaser -- seeing people with sales of 10-12+ on Craigslist floors me. Does U2 really need the extra money from forcing people to sign up for their site? REALLY? I am sure some of it gets donated blah blah, but the prices are astronomical as is -- requiring people to pay extra to even have a shot at a ticket is absurd.
To be fair, the reader shouldn't have waited for the link on Live Nation. I too tried today and didn't get tickets. I wasn't aware it was on sale on Ticketmaster and kept my eyes open on the Live Nation site and when 10:01 came about and there was no link, I cleared my history and tried again and then subsequently went to Ticketmaster to find them on sale. I got in the "waiting-line" for tickets at 10:03 and it said it was an 8/9 minute wait. The result was no such luck. I do agree though that if Live Nation is promoting the thing that they should have a working link at the exact time of the sale (or possibly even efore sale time to direct people to ticketmaster so they can refreseh that website instead).
This is not to say though that there weren't individuals waiting at 10 / 10:01 on the ticketmaster site who still ended up with nothing. It seems like a lot of people splashed $50 for the fan-club to get a chance at the pre-sale (though secondary markets are a factor too, without a doubt).
The whole thing is a real crock of expletive. I tried and of course failed miserably to get tickets... any tickets. I thought there's no way the pre-sale that I didn't pay $50 for would completely destroy any chance I had at getting a ticket -- obviously I was wrong.
There should have been a limit of 4 (maybe 6) tickets per purchaser -- seeing people with sales of 10-12+ on Craigslist floors me. Does U2 really need the extra money from forcing people to sign up for their site? REALLY? I am sure some of it gets donated blah blah, but the prices are astronomical as is -- requiring people to pay extra to even have a shot at a ticket is absurd.
I went straight to the Ticketmaster website rather than going to LiveNation.com and clicked on the link to get tickets exactly at 10 a.m. After waiting in the "line" for about three or four minutes, I got two GREAT tickets in section 138 (which is lower level at what would be the fifty yard line for a Bears game). When I went on the Ticketmaster site, I selected two tickets at any price level in any section before going forward. Maybe I just got lucky!
I have to say that i was so reaking lucky. i had everything set up so that at 10:00:01 my page would refresh on ticketmaster and i would be first in line to get a ticket. even then i was in a que of about 5 minutes, turned out to be about 2 but still. then i ended up getting tickets that were 255 dollars and i couldnt afford so i had to decline. Retried with a lower price and they were sold out, so i checked StubHub out and got tickets EXACTLY beside the ones i had on ticketmaster but i got them for 150 instead of 255. Ill be laughing at the guy who sits beside me saying i could have had those seats. But i think if anyone really wants to see this concert try Stub Hub, yes they are scalpers but ive seen a few prices lower then ticketmaster, and a tickets a ticket.
I hate how journalists always talk about how much tickets are listed for, not how much they're selling for. $16,500 is meaningless. I could go on there and list a pair for a million dollars, no one is going to pay that much. Look at completed auctions on eBay, or start to sell an imaginary pair on StubHub (but cancel after it shows you what has been sold) to see how much people are actually paying.
The average price a scalper is getting on StubHub is $164 a ticket.
One person paid $334 for tickets that the scalper bought for $250(+ plus probably $30 in fees). That means they got marked up about fifty bucks. Big deal.
And that is selling to people panicked that it sold out so fast. It will only go down from here. I wouldn't be surprised if most tickets were selling for BELOW face value pretty soon. They added a second show, so the resale value on the first show is going to tank.
Thank you for your article regarding the U2 ticketing today.
I have been following the Ticketmaster comedy series (I mean News) alot lately, since I have been entirely unable to obtain face value tickets to see my favorite band. I paid the monster's reseller $443.00 for a $50 ticket just to be able to go to one show, and the thought of that still turns my stomach.
Ticketmaster likes to pretend in public that these things do not happen and that it can all be chalked up to supply and demand. It takes larger voices than mine to be heard, so I appreciate all of the articles that help bring the experience of the consumers to light.
I hope all of the publicity will spark some change to this industry. Anyone with a computer today can (and do) scalp tickets online - something must be changed.
Thanks again,
--Lana
I got shut out of tickets this morning, too, as did four other friends who were all online right at 10 a.m. We're all pretty savvy concertgoers and know how to navigate a Ticketmaster on-sale, but none of us were able to get through, not even once. I've never seen tickets vanish from availablity so quickly, and I've got no reason to think next Monday's on-sale will be any different.
Boo hoo!
Sometimes it really pays to follow directions. Ticketmaster clearly states that the best way to get tickets is to select "Best Available". If you thought you could demand a ticket at a price you were willing to pay, well, see ya in the parking lot.
I am the proud owner of four beauties by just following directions. Am I happy with how much I had to pay? Of course not! Will I give it a second thought on Sept. 12? Hell no.
9:59 loaded ticketmaster.com
refresh X4
10:00 entered the queue
10:02 tickets reserved
10:05 tickets paid for and receipt printed!
Drew and "Lucky dude,"
You're right. There are some great values on the resale market.
FanSnap -- mentioned in the story -- currently shows 4,700+ U2 tickets starting at $81 each (including fees).
FanSnap is a search engine for tickets. We're currently showing you tickets from:
RazorGator
Ticket Solutions
Gold Coast Tickets
The Ticket Guys
TicketNetwork
eBay
Choice Tickets
Stage Front Ticket
StubHub
You can see all the tickets at once and choose the seats you want. Here's the link: http://www.fansnap.com/u2-tickets/u2/september-12-2009-134213
While it is a crock of crap that the average fan is getting shut out, please keep your hopes up. With a second show added and many of the original tickets landing in the hands of scalpers, there are bound to be a number of tickets at, or even below, face value closer to the date of the show.
Please do not give into the urge to buy a scalped ticket now just to have something in hand. Wait it out and you will be rewarded.
I blame places like StubHub. If someone is going to buy a ticket and then sell it on sites like StubHub for 3x or 4x times the face value, why shouldn't the band be allowed do that and just raise the prices of their tickets? Yeah it sucks that Live Nation is doing all these auctions, but there are a number of sites (listed in a previous post) that do the same thing. The only thing I hate iis the convenience charges that ticketmaster applies to every ticket. That part irks me.
How in the world do 65,000 tickets sell out in 4 minutes?!?!?
There is something terrilbly wrong going on here cause that just impossible.
I've been buying tickets for concerts since I was 13 (now going on 30) and I've never had an experience like this before. EVER.
Shady Ticketmaster. Shady Live Nation. And, yes, SHADY U2 for associating themselves with these money hungry creeps.
Cheers,
Mauricio Reyes.
Blake:
I was there at 9:40 and slowly refreshed -- did so again at 10:00 and picked 2, Best Available. Nothing. Did it again and after the captcha saw it go waiting 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 minutes -- logged on to another computer at work and tried on there, nothing.
Plain and simple this was all about luck which is fine, but I find it infuriating that the reality is that unless you paid the $50 to get into the pre-sale, the chances were obviously extremely high that you would be skunked.
i too was there at9:30 and logged on at 10:00, I choose the GA, any price, best available. The wait...5 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, until were sorry there are no matches for you. I think this is complete bull why should we have to bid at an auction to get tickets? I was trying to get tickets for my wife and needless to say I will never buy U2 tickets again through ticketmaster. Whoose to blame? Thanks fo r the vent.
Jer
Jon,
You absolutely did not have to pay $50 for thye U2 fan club to get good tickets. I was able to get tickets for everyone I know and then some via a free pre-sale. Don't judge before you know all of the facts. The pre-sale was absolutely free, no AmEx/Citi card required or anything like that. Doing a little research on this here internet can do amazing things.
I saw U2 on the All That You Can't Leave Behind Tour... or whatever it was called. I went to three of their four scheduled Chicago shows at the United Center, two of which I had floor (GA) seats for, and one of which I was in the lower level seating. I spent a total of $180 for all three nights. If I remember correctly, GA tickets were $85 (not including service charges).
How? Scalpers.
Real scalpers. Not StubHub, not brokers, not eBay, not Craigslist. Real, true-to-life human motherfuckers standing two blocks from the venue desperately asking face value ten minutes after the concert started.
I will not buy tickets to a show in Chicago any other way.
for those that got shut out--wait until a couple of days before (or even day of) the concert to try ticketmaster again. even if it says "no tickets" available, keep trying. as credit cards get declined or sponsors can't use tickets, they go back into the pool for purchase. I got 2 tickets day of show for one of their 9/05 concerts at the UC on the floor for $49 each (plus the ticketmaster extortion fees). Then when they scanned my ticket we got to go into the area in the middle of the stage. All for face value Don't fall for the scalpers.
Hey People, U2 had four shows in Chicago during the 1st leg of the Vertigo tour in 2005. How much do you want to be they will add a 3rd Friday show?
So what about the sell out shows...U2 always sells out. Oh by the way, so did Hannah Montana. U2 has to get off their high horse.
Jose, blaming places like StubHub for resale ticket prices is like blaming the New York Stick Exchange for an up or down stock market. Marketplaces are just where willing buyers and sellers meet. The exchange prices just depend on how many of each there are.
Some of these other comments are just plain silly. Google, the phone company, and your bank handle thousands of transactions a second. I am not a Ticketmaster fan, but it is not hard to believe that in this day and age of computers that they can process thousands of orders in a few minutes.
This posting raises a good point: In recent articles, Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff has admitted that the company often holds back large blocks of tickets -- allegedly at the request of the band, the venue and/or the promoters.
Did ALL of the available tickets for Soldier Field really go on sale today at 10 a.m. and really sell out in several minutes? Or were some held back for resale or other purposes?
Not to forgive the scalpers -- they still have software that can send thousands of ticket-buy requests per second to the average human being's one, far out-powering Joe Consumer.
I must've been extremely lucky. I was ready at Ticketmaster site at 10,picked lowest price tickets and got 3rd row. Only complaint I had is those convenience fees. $12 per ticket!!!
I was also one of the unlucky many this morning. One thing that didn't occur to me until after the fact was that this is the first show of the North American tour so many tickets were likely held back for industry big wigs, media outlets and others outside the average concert goer. Hopefully, the second show will not have the "must go" factor of the first show.
[Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff has admitted that the company often holds back large blocks of tickets -- allegedly at the request of the band, the venue and/or the promoters.]
This is true, as also noted in an NPR story. They sell the tickets THEMSELVES to make more money
The Cubs set up a shell corporation to do the exact same thing. The city sued, but lost.
The way Ticketmaster automatically re-directed pretty much all persons from their "purchase a ticket" site to the "bid on a ticket" price was misleading. All those who were deceived into "bidding" on a ticket at an artificially inflated price should file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General (google for the form) and BBB.
Check back close to the show date- U2 holds back some seats, and the often releases tickets in the days leading up to the show- I got GA tickets the night before one of their vertigo shows,l
I'm pleased that my husband & I are fortunate to have tix for Soldier Field & Gillette Stadium.
For those who were not so fortunate and frustrated:
We are U2 subscribers, we pay for the subscription because we are serious U2 fans - no other reason. Being able to join the pre-sale is a worthy perk. Paid or free subscriptions limit ticket purchases to 4 per membership.
Here's the surprise: We were shocked to learn that we could purchase tix at a pre-pre-sale event promoted by the venue even before the U2 Horizon Group has access to the "announced pre-sale." No limit on the number of tix, etc. This event was e-mailed by the stadium & the purchase was made thru Ticketmaster.
If there is corruption somewhere - there are a few rocks that should not be left unturned - such as the executives of the venue/ stadium level.
I tried to buy tix for the Giants Stadium show yesterday, and had the option to buy four $95 tix in section 108. I decided I only wanted 2 tickets, so knowing it would be sold out by the time I gave them up and went back in, I held out for the inevitable "second show." Sure enough, today the second show went on sale with a presale "access code." When I went to buy from here, I got thru and was offered seats in the 200 section for $250. WHAT? This makes no sense. I gave them up and tried for $95 seats, and got a chance to buy 2 in the 300 section. Did U2 make all seats beside the 300 section $250 because the first show sold out so quickly? This is a very shady move by U2. I'm frankly disgusted by the whole thing.
typed in Cheap U2 Tickets in google and this site came up #1. I bought a couple cheap tickets in the nose bleeds but was happy to get seats with no issues.
So many crybabies clamoring that the real fans couldn't get tix. Newsflash: The REAL fans are U2.com subscribers and DID get tickets. This was the same deal with the Vertigo tour, only, in that case, there were a very limited number of tix set aside for the fan club members. It was a fiasco. A lot of members were unable to get tix and U2.com had to process thousands of refunds to subscribers who couldn't get tickets. U2 did it right this time. My ticket-buying experience was MAG-NIF-I-CENT!
Going so far as to say that I'm not a real U2 fan because I don't pay to be part of thier site is pretty ridiculous. I've seen them live 9 times and know more about their history and their music than just about anyone. Am I less a fan because I don't want to pay for access to their site? C'mon now.
I'm not in Chicago, but I had a great seat (one ticket) for Giants Stadium in the 100s and the thing timed out on the shipping screen before I got to the payment screen (and I was logged into my Ticketmaster account). I lost that ticket. I tried again and finally ended up with a ticket at the same (way steep) price of $272 with fees, but one section higher. Needless to say, I was pissed!
I have been a fan since the 80s and frankly, I don't feel that I need to pay $50 to prove I am a real fan. A lot of you that claim to be real fans were still in pre-school when U2 rocked the Rosemont Horizon in 1987.
The website is another money maker and U2 made millions in 2005 when the the cost was only $25. I had joined in 2005 and even though I had the U2.COM presale code, I still ended up with nosebleed seats at United Center. I did better without the code during the second leg of the tour.
Frankly, I am pretty tired of all the money mongering. I may or may not go to the show this September. Maybe I will just continue watching the older videos on Comcast and remember the good old days.
ha you lot. membership has its benefits. i've been a u2.com fan since the propaganda days. that's going on 17 years. and i'm not some old geezer either. i got floor seats to the chicago show easy as part of the horizon group. i have no sympathy for the lot who biatch about not getting tickets.
Just so you know i work in the ticket biz and i can assure you that you won't want live nation and ticketmaster to merge trust me. It's about to happen or i should say has already happend as there is pending federal charges against ticketmaster for directing customers to ticketsnow who charges a arm and a leg yes they are a ticket broker and yes ticketmaster owns them. Think about this ticketsnow had the tickets listed on there site before they went on sale. How do you think they got there?
Look it up you will see
Got my U2 tix today at 10:01. Tried to buy more at 10:04 and they were sold out. Glad I got my first 4!!!
I got my tix at 10:01 on April 7th for the Sep 13th show...
But ended up with seats in section 252... not sure if they're good seats or not given the stage configuration...
Anyone been to a U2 concert at soldier field? is section 252 a bad section?
A) Live Nation had nothing to do with this, this is all Ticketmaster. (The venue management, in this case SMG, has a contract with Ticketmaster they must honor). TM/LN are still very seperate companies and share little at this time and until the merger is approved.
B) Bono is in favor of the merger.
C) The music industry is a s---hole. It's not going to save itself, might as well let ln/tm do it.
WOW. For all you "real" U2 fan club members... Um, it's also time to throw away the acid wash jeans. I get it, you're a fan. You're also an idiot for paying a membership fee. If you want to support U2's philanthropic efforts, there are many better ways to do it.
U2 tickets went on sale in Raleigh today. And instead of the usual Ticketmaster "time out" scam they usually pull, they just charged everyone $250 for every ticket they bought. No matter the section, no matter what price you requested. Guess they thought no one would notice...
I am thrilled for all of you who had fantastic, super-duper experiences with Ticketmaster. But make no mistake, Ticketmaster commits illegalities with every concert sale and this appears to be their newest scam. I would rather pay $500 to a scalper than ever deal with Ticketmaster again. At least scalpers are up front about what they're doing.