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After days of festering outrage from Bruce Springsteen fans on skyrocketing prices for his upcoming tour, the musician’s team tries to do some damage control, allowing Ticketmaster to release data and The Boss manager arguing that tickets have been set at a “fair price” for see one of the “very greatest artists of his generation.”
Springsteen’s new tour will begin in February 2023, with dates in the US, UK and Europe. When tickets first went on sale July 20, Ticketmaster’s “Official Platinum” dynamic pricing system spiked prices to over $4,300 for floor seats. Additional reports this week noted that some tickets cost more than $5,500 each.
An NJ.com op-ed with the blunt headline “Bruce Springsteen Doesn’t Care About You” slammed him for abandoning fans who shared his blue-collar roots, pointing out that floor seating for his final 2016 tour won’t only cost $164.
The New York Times journalist My deara self-proclaimed “longtime” Springsteen fan, noted that while he personally agrees that tickets to his shows are “worth several hundred dollars,” he acknowledged the anger of his fellow fans, especially after Springsteen’s initial silence on the controversy “became too visible for the very people who fought and scratched to pay big bucks” to attend his shows.
Springsteen Manager Jon Landau released a statement explaining that the band had “considered carefully what our peers have done” when pricing tickets for the tour. “We chose prices lower than some and comparable to others.”
“Regardless of the comment about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been around $200,” Landau continued. “I believe in today’s environment, it’s a fair price to see someone universally regarded as one of the greatest artists of their generation.”
The group also allowed Ticketmaster to publish ticket sales data, Lieber reported:
Only 1.3% of Ticketmaster users paid more than $1,000 per ticket. Additionally, 88.2% of tickets were “sold at fixed prices,” according to Ticketmaster, although the remaining 11.8% likely represents more than 11.8% of revenue per show, due to their higher face value. high.
As Lieber noted, this ticket pricing model puts more of the concert’s profits in the pockets of the musicians rather than the ticket sellers, and fans still bought the tickets to see The Boss for the first time since 2016.
Yet, as one Twitter user who said he had attended 53 previous Springsteen shows seen in a long thread, the problem with ticket prices was not just the “market-based” pricing that drove up premium tier seats, but what “really made me sick” was how prices were also inflated for “nosebleed” seats, in the upper rows of the stadium in poor vantage points like the corners and behind the stage. These ‘cheap seats’ allow ‘most working Americans’ to afford a ticket, but these prices now make it ‘impossible’ for the ‘people who need this night the most’ to get out and enjoy the live music.
Admittedly, it will be 7 years since Bruce and the ESB toured when these shows take place, but what really made me sick? See what they charge for third tier seats behind the stage. $241 BEFORE fees. ten/ pic.twitter.com/qydGnITSbA
– The screen door slams (@thescreendoor) July 23, 2022
I really didn’t mind sitting in the nosebleeds because I knew I wasn’t being taken advantage of. Stadiums and arenas are some of the worst places imaginable to see live music, but we love music so much we want to experience it. 16/
– The screen door slams (@thescreendoor) July 23, 2022
With the over $100 fee added by Ticketmaster, he observed, two tickets would end up costing nearly $650, saying it “borders on criminal behavior” and was “wrong on every level of decency.” This high price for the “worst seat in an arena is not fair”, he said.
I decided to click through and see what the fees were and for 2 tickets it’s $648.61 which is way more than $263.00 x 2.
They added $119.66 in fees.
It must be said that this borders on criminal behavior. This is wrong on every level of decency. 20/ pic.twitter.com/iEOhRGZ2mN
– The screen door slams (@thescreendoor) July 23, 2022
Other Springsteen fans have bitterly commented that it may be cheaper to fly across the ocean and buy a ticket to one of the European cities where the band will play than to simply buy a ticket to the show in their own city, placing the blame squarely on Ticketmaster.
In my own hometown of Orlando, Florida, Springsteen will play at the Amway Center on February 5, 2023. “Resale verified tickets” are still available throughout the arena, and the majority of the highest section is still $350 at $400 each. The absolute cheapest seats are in the upper sections behind the stage, but the very last row tickets were still asking $195.00 each plus the much-maligned Ticketmaster fee, which adds over $90 to the price. After taxes, you’ll pay $500 to have you and a friend hang from the rafters to watch the back of Springsteen’s head.
It’s not just VIP seats that require a mortgage payment to purchase. If you wanted to get out of the nosebleed section, there are a handful of scattered tickets available in the middle section in the $600-800 range, but mostly with four-digit price tags, especially if you want two or more tickets sitting together.
Screenshot via Ticketmaster.
Screenshot via Ticketmaster.com.
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