Stadium Ticket Pricing

[The Nal]

Unfortunately the veblen goods model applies now to stadium gigs

[parsonjack]

At least it looks like we're not expected to pay £100 to watch Angus strut his stuff from behind the staging.....

 

[gigpusher]

On 2/13/2024 at 9:17 PM, maelzoid said:

I remain utterly appalled by these Pearl jam prices. 2022 we paid £70 per ticket or £120 for 2 shows. I don't know how they can justify more than doubling the ticket price in just two years. For the time being I am out. Maybe pick up something on the secondary market closer to the day.

Also keen to see Springsteen and AC/DC this summer, all similarly priced.  Tickets to see stadium acts have indeed become a luxury item.

It's become beyond luxury especially if you are a parent who has a child who wants to go. Some of these are beyond the reach of sole Christmas present prices now for an ordinary family.

[clarkete]

13 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

It's become beyond luxury especially if you are a parent who has a child who wants to go. Some of these are beyond the reach of sole Christmas present prices now for an ordinary family.

It will be interesting to see how it sells. 

Average incomes are a difficult measure, as of course there are plenty who earn them or below, but there are also a fair sized potential audience earning above those averages.  Question is whether they are potential ticket buyers for a given act? 

[-TLR-]

going to a concert is supposed to be a fun experience isn't it?

i mean, surely the purpose of going to a gig is to see an artist you like, playing songs you like and to have a good time while you do it?

i find absolutely ZERO pleasure in paying out some, frankly absurd, amount of money for a ticket and then spending the build up to the event not looking forward to it thinking how great its going to be, but feeling resentment at the fact that i've been willingly mugged off...

and when you get there you find that its been, or at least appears and feels to be, massively oversold so that it is far too crowded to even be enjoyable... and all the while you can hand over another £50 to buy a t-shirt so you can walk around proudly showing off the fact that you thought it was somehow a good idea to pay £50 for a t-shirt...

 

this may, or may not, be my feelings after the Bruce shows i went to last year, as i sit here looking at a t-shirt i may, or may not, have paid £50 for...

[tarw]

1 minute ago, -TLR- said:

going to a concert is supposed to be a fun experience isn't it?

i mean, surely the purpose of going to a gig is to see an artist you like, playing songs you like and to have a good time while you do it?

i find absolutely ZERO pleasure in paying out some, frankly absurd, amount of money for a ticket and then spending the build up to the event not looking forward to it thinking how great its going to be, but feeling resentment at the fact that i've been willingly mugged off...

and when you get there you find that its been, or at least appears and feels to be, massively oversold so that it is far too crowded to even be enjoyable... and all the while you can hand over another £50 to buy a t-shirt so you can walk around proudly showing off the fact that you thought it was somehow a good idea to pay £50 for a t-shirt...

 

this may, or may not, be my feelings after the Bruce shows i went to last year, as i sit here looking at a t-shirt i may, or may not, have paid £50 for...

What about the poor Italian fans?  It was €90 for a Bruce t-shirt in Rome on the last tour! I dread to think how much this time round 

[balti-pie]

I kind of expect to be reamed on ticket and merch prices by AC/DC, cos they dont often play. I definitely expect it from Motley Crue, cos they're all terrible reprehensible bastards (now that Mick Mars isnt in the band). But i presumed Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam would be different, cos they've always seemed to have a moral compass and been aware of ticketmaster, tried to keep ticket prices low etc: and have mentioned this in interviews etc -  and then they both join the conveyor belt of filthy lucre. 

[gigpusher]

26 minutes ago, -TLR- said:

going to a concert is supposed to be a fun experience isn't it?

i mean, surely the purpose of going to a gig is to see an artist you like, playing songs you like and to have a good time while you do it?

i find absolutely ZERO pleasure in paying out some, frankly absurd, amount of money for a ticket and then spending the build up to the event not looking forward to it thinking how great its going to be, but feeling resentment at the fact that i've been willingly mugged off...

and when you get there you find that its been, or at least appears and feels to be, massively oversold so that it is far too crowded to even be enjoyable... and all the while you can hand over another £50 to buy a t-shirt so you can walk around proudly showing off the fact that you thought it was somehow a good idea to pay £50 for a t-shirt...

 

this may, or may not, be my feelings after the Bruce shows i went to last year, as i sit here looking at a t-shirt i may, or may not, have paid £50 for...

Yes at least until my mortgage is paid off I don't think I'll be doing another stadium show bar the one Taylor Swift one I have tickets for and I paid £178 for 2 tickets for that which frankly seeing some of the new prices coming through is beginning to feel like a bargain.

As an aunt rather than a parent it's particularly annoying as I promised I'd take my niece and nephew to their first gigs. Would have been a time when you could pick a stadium gig and it would be a decent Christmas present but my niece is coming to Band On The Wall to see Jalen Ngonda rather than any big shows because the cost of the big shows is just way too much.

Even Arena gigs pricing is insane I mean £93 to £230 for The Corrs is just insane pricing. At least the big pop acts have troupes of dancers to pay and usually big staging whereas it feels like some acts are using the pricing but not even especially providing the show.

[clarkete]

Purely as we're talking about pricing and costs... 

https://www.thepoke.com/2024/02/14/this-telegraph-readers-financial-dilemma-got-all-the-responses-youd-expect-but-was-no-less-satisfying-for-it/

[gigpusher]

24 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Purely as we're talking about pricing and costs... 

https://www.thepoke.com/2024/02/14/this-telegraph-readers-financial-dilemma-got-all-the-responses-youd-expect-but-was-no-less-satisfying-for-it/

🤣 The lack of self awareness in these articles is hilarious.

Saw another one recently about a 'young 24 and 25 year old couple who managed to save their deposit by their house by living at home and sponging off their parents whilst they saved and it was all very sanctimonious about how renting was dead money with no thought for the fact that not everyone's parents can allow them to live at home with minimum contribution and some people need to rent to escape their parents!

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, -TLR- said:

going to a concert is supposed to be a fun experience isn't it?

i mean, surely the purpose of going to a gig is to see an artist you like, playing songs you like and to have a good time while you do it?

i find absolutely ZERO pleasure in paying out some, frankly absurd, amount of money for a ticket and then spending the build up to the event not looking forward to it thinking how great its going to be, but feeling resentment at the fact that i've been willingly mugged off...

I agree, gigs have always been something that's a mixed bag for me - sometimes they are incredible mind-blowing events, other times the band has an off-day, or you end up stood next to some dickheads in the crowd, or behind a 6 foot tall person. And that was always fine, because it was £20, maybe £30 for a big act.

At £200 that's just too much to risk. And it forces the whole production to shift to a much more consistent, reproduceable show. Because you can't afford to have a bad night. But that also means you no longer get the magical nights where the act drops in a random song because it feels right or things just go in a weird and wonderful direction. Instead, you have to deliver the same show the people who were there last night saw.

We also now go pretty much only seated as well, partly as we're getting older, but also partly as it takes some of the randomness out of it.

[DeanoL]

19 hours ago, fred quimby said:

Haven't trawled through the thread but has there been a breakdown of why these high prices. I know inflation has been high and people want to also be paid fairly but just wondering if there was anything out there

I think with acts like Bruce that have been touring forever it's an element of making as much money as they can in the final years pre-retirement. And yes, on one hand you can say "why? he's a millionaire, he doesn't need it" but I suspect much of their touring apparatus, crew etc. have been with them for decades as well. And probably can't retire. If it's that, if it's paying the road crew silly money for the final few years to sort them out, then I'd applaud it.

But no idea if that is true, it's total speculation. 

[clarkete]

47 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

I agree, gigs have always been something that's a mixed bag for me - sometimes they are incredible mind-blowing events, other times the band has an off-day, or you end up stood next to some dickheads in the crowd, or behind a 6 foot tall person. And that was always fine, because it was £20, maybe £30 for a big act.

At £200 that's just too much to risk. And it forces the whole production to shift to a much more consistent, reproduceable show. Because you can't afford to have a bad night. But that also means you no longer get the magical nights where the act drops in a random song because it feels right or things just go in a weird and wonderful direction. Instead, you have to deliver the same show the people who were there last night saw.

We also now go pretty much only seated as well, partly as we're getting older, but also partly as it takes some of the randomness out of it.

I don't know how the venues below stadium size are referred - concert halls? 

In Bristol they spent a lot of money (much to some locals complaint) updating their hall and renaming it Bristol Beacon - main hall capacity just over 2000.  Took everything out and stripped back to victorian foundations, took the roof off and rebuilt to improve acoustics, meet safety regs etc. 

I've bought for a few things there, mixture of comedy and gigs - anything between 25 and 50 quid.  For gigs they have a central area they can remove the seats from and that's where I went recently for Bombay Bicycle Club.  Sound was fabulous, as you say occasionally people taller emerge just before the act starts, but was a great atmosphere and sold out. 

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, -TLR- said:

this may, or may not, be my feelings after the Bruce shows i went to last year, as i sit here looking at a t-shirt i may, or may not, have paid £50 for...

I mean, we may or may not interpret it as influenced by that historical incident. Too early to tell though.

[CaledonianGonzo]

AC/DC doing dynamic pricing is it?

Front standing at Wembley is now £350

[Nestacres]

26 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

AC/DC doing dynamic pricing is it?

Front standing at Wembley is now £350

Got mine from See tickets at £149. Are you looking at Ticketmaster?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yep. Not buying - just curious.

[parsonjack]

Looks like Ticketmaster are the only site with Standing left....and they've def bumped the price.

Thieves.

[cdm22]

17 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Looks like Ticketmaster are the only site with Standing left....and they've def bumped the price.

Thieves.

Yeah, saw someone else on twitter saying they got tickets and the price on their confirmation from Ticketmaster was £345ish for the front! F*cking hate ticketmaster for that (which i why I never use them if I can help it, and got mine via gigsandtours.com)

[-TLR-]

i love the way they are also chucking an extra fee on top for the privilege of an aisle seat.. 

i wonder what extra fees they will dream up next?

is there some sort of conference in a Holiday Inn somewhere that all the string-pullers in the music industry get together to discuss new and innovative ways to screw people out of their money?

[Ayrshire Chris]

1 hour ago, cdm22 said:

Yeah, saw someone else on twitter saying they got tickets and the price on their confirmation from Ticketmaster was £345ish for the front! F*cking hate ticketmaster for that (which i why I never use them if I can help it, and got mine via gigsandtours.com)

Absolutely shocking the dynamic pricing. Just glad I’ve already seen AC/DC in their prime three times. 

[4AssedMonkey]

On 2/12/2024 at 1:06 PM, gigpusher said:

It's an arena gig and not a stadium one but saw a Facebook post with someone complaining about The Corrs ticket prices and so I had to have a look. Cheapest tickets £93 and went up to £230. I mean that's just crazy to me.

What, I mean...what?  Who in their right mind would pay that?  Half empty arenas beckon, surely?

On 2/12/2024 at 10:02 PM, stanh said:

Done a little update to the chart with the additions of Billy Joel in Cardiff and AC/DC in London. Well over £100 on average for a ticket to a stadium show in the UK this summer. 

Good old man of the people Bruce "The Hypocrite" Springsteen as worst offender.  Who'd have thunk it.  For shame, Bruce.  For shame.

[gigpusher]

6 minutes ago, 4AssedMonkey said:

What, I mean...what?  Who in their right mind would pay that?  Half empty arenas beckon, surely?

 

I know I couldn't believe it. Saw lots of comments under a Facebook advert complaining about the cost so had to look. I was expecting them to be £50-60 if people were complaining.

 

[Scrump]

On 2/15/2024 at 10:11 AM, gigpusher said:

Even Arena gigs pricing is insane I mean £93 to £230 for The Corrs is just insane pricing

Agreed! I can't make sense of the pricing for bigger gigs at the moment. Although I'm firmly rooted in feeling that gigs should never cost more than 15 quid, so maybe I'm just tight. But then I go and see things like this ....

 

[clarkete]

On 2/15/2024 at 10:11 AM, gigpusher said:

Even Arena gigs pricing is insane I mean £93 to £230 for The Corrs is just insane pricing. 

Thankfully we got to see their boring but beautiful prime on the farm for a pittance way back (checks notes) ... 25 years ago?!?