Nobody Wins Unless Everybody Wins

Tickets went on sale this morning for several Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band shows for their next USA tour, starting next February. By the time of the first scheduled show at Tampa Bay's Amalie Arena on February 1st, it will have been more than 6 full years since his last US shows in September 2016. Since then, he's released an autobiography, gone on a book tour, made a western album, produced a film that was exhibited at a major film festival, played a few charity gigs, made an album with the E Street Band, sold his catalogue to the record company for a half billion dollars, had one planned E Street Band tour scuttled at the last minute due to COVID concerns, and had two stints of his one man show, "Springsteen on Broadway." Profitably busy, one might say, and now it's time to hit the road.

Prices for "platinum" tickets in Tampa. Yes, those are real.

Springsteen's ticketing policy has varied over the years: In 1999, for example, virtually every seat within reasonable sightlines to the stage was priced at $67.50. For subsequent E Street Band tours, a "lottery" system gave fans a legitimate chance to catch a show within a few feet of the stage for around $100, even as other top acts routinely charged multiples of that. When Bruce played the poorly attended Seeger Sessions tour in 2006, I was able to buy a lawn seat at Pine Knob and bring along both of my children and my older child's best friend for a grand total of $25. My 5-year old danced all night.

In short, Springsteen wasn't just the best act around, his show -- at least in relative terms -- was a darn good value, too. Even Springsteen on Broadway's prices, which went up to $850 per ticket, could be excused -- or at least rationalized -- on the idea that it was a one time event (for most fans) in an intimate setting.

That brings me to today's sale. I'll say up front that Bruce is perfectly entitled to charge whatever the market will bear. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be part of that market. "This train carries winners and losers," perhaps, but if you want to see a stage without binoculars, you'd best be a big winner -- at least in terms of money.

Most fans had heard the rumbles of better seats costing around $400 at most shows, and of the engagement of "dynamic pricing" and the "verified platinum" tickets that allow Ticketmaster essentially to become its own broker. Fewer of us had seen it fully in action. The experience of the pre-sale went like this:

First, fans wanting tickets for a Ticketmaster date (all but a handful of USA shows) had to sign up to be a "Verified Fan." This presumably adds fans to various mailing lists and promotions and maybe gets their email addresses on lists that are sold to various entities. Then, some fans received a notice that they had been selected to try for tickets during one or more of the pre-sales occurring over the next several days. A few minutes before the appointed hour, fans with verification codes could enter a Ticketmaster waiting room. Through the duration of this process, any attempt to find prices would have been fruitless.

At 10am, the queue formed. Most people, like me, got a notice that there were "2000+" people in front of them. By the time I was allowed in the room, anything resembling a decent seat at face value (+ Ticketmaster fees of around 18%) was gone. Worse, no matter how many times I instructed Ticketmaster's interface to show me only the "verified fan" tickets, it would show me platinum tickets at multiple times the price For sure, there were people suckered in to buying such tickets, without fully realizing that they were being fleeced. Prices for "platinum" tickets soon touched up to $5,000 in Tampa and several other venues. During the full sale in the afternoon, Ticketmaster informed me that I must be a bot, and didn't show me sales pages at all.

Ticketmaster locked me out of the regular onsale with this lovely message. They're not pardoned.

I didn't buy anything.

At this point, it's difficult to say whether posted ticket prices and availability reflect true market supply and demand. It'll likely be much closer to show time before we find out. And again, I don't begrudge Bruce making every dollar he can off the tour. Many fans are very upset, and for sure, I expect it'll be a substantially different type of audience. I hope to catch the show, as some point. Just not on a platinum ticket.