Bruce Springsteen fans like to think of him as tougher than the rest, not pricier than the rest. So there were inevitable eruptions of anger when fans logged on for the first day of sales for the opening shows on his 2023 arena tour and found tickets going for as as $4,000-5,000 for mid-range floor seats, and into the four-figures for other, less desirable tickets that remained. If these were being offered on the secondary market, offers that exorbitant might be expected… but what gave fans sticker shock was that these were face value tickets, with no middleman jacking up the price.
It was an introduction for many fans to Ticketmaster‘s “dynamic pricing” program, in which “platinum tickets” — which may be placed anywhere in the arena, from the front section to the back rows — fluctuate in price, in what is said to be ongoing reaction to demand. The system lets ticket prices quickly rise to a level it’s believed resellers would get for them, keeping that extra money in-house for the artist and promoter. But as Wednesday’s ticket sales went on and went up, even some concert veterans who know and accept the idea of variable pricing wondered: Would even scalpers ask close to $5,000 for a good but not directly front-of-house seat?
Fan ire was quickly evident in responses to an early tweet from Backstreets, the Springsteen fan magazine, which posted a screenshot of the price for one seat on for the tour’s opening night and wondered: “Tampa mid-floor for $4,400, anyone?” (That’s an amount that included $3,819 in face value plus $569.50 in fees.) Other perturbed fans quickly joined in with screenshots of the unusually costly offers they were getting, once they’d gone through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system and waited in an online queue.
Tampa mid-floor for $4,400 each, anyone? #catchandrelease
“Ticketmaster's Official Platinum seat program enables market-based pricing (adjusting prices according to supply and demand) for live event tickets, similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold.” pic.twitter/8qyanN0OQA
— Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag) July 20, 2022
If the Verified Fan system and fast-escalating prices were designed to thwart scalpers, there was some question how successful that was. Late in the day, the seating chart for the Tulsa, Oklahoma show appeared to show about a fifth of the seats in the arena already having been turned around and put up for sale on the secondary market via Ticketmaster’s resale program, where individual sellers who want to pass on their tickets are free to set their own prices.
Of course, demand will drastically outstrip supply for all of Springsteen’s one-night-stand arena dates, which count as a drastic underplay by his usual multi-nighter standards. This is not the first time in recent years that the dynamic pricing system has angered fans, who’ve watched in wonder as covetable tickets for a Harry Styles or Paul McCartney rise right before their eyes. And, let’s face it, even under the best of ticketing circumstances, complaining about ticket prices is a national pastime. Still, even given all that, few observers of the live business can remember tours in which the face value for most seats grew by 10 times or more across an arena in the course of a few hours, landing at a point where it cost $4,000 or more just to get on the floor — with tickets reportedly having maxed out at $399 when the on-sale started.
Springsteen’s camp declined comment, and Ticketmaster had not responded with a comment at the time of this writing.
I went back into to presale for @springsteen in #Boston and pulled this cute little pair on the floor….. for $5000. Shameful. #springsteen #springsteentour2023 pic.twitter/3NxqPM3R1D
— Steve Leibowitz (@StevenL57) July 20, 2022
The only person associated with the tour to publicly respond so far has been Stevie Van Zant, who tweeted, “I have nothing whatsoever to do with the price of tickets. Nothing. Nada. Niente. Bubkis. Dick.” The veteran E Street Band guitarist’s disavowal did little to dissuade fans from further demanding that he take their outrage directly to the Boss.
I have nothing whatsoever to do with the price of tickets. Nothing. Nada. Niente. Bubkis. Dick. https://t.co/NsDJvoLMWu
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