$94 & $64 for Giants Stadium tickets... How friggin ridiculous. And he'll sell every one out quickly.
I haven't been to stadium shows for major acts in forever, but that doesn't sound too bad to me. Weren't U2 and Elton John charging like $120 5 or 6 years ago?
I don't know what to think about this. Doesn't he also charge quite low prices when he does his (annual?) Asbury Park shows?
I have no idea how the concert promotion business works but how much say does the performer have on the issue of ticket pricing. I guess if you're BS then probably quite a lot but he won't be the only one setting the prices will he ? Wasn't this the issue that Pearl Jam had a few years back. My own beef is about the idea of playing stadiums in the first place, if you're sitting in row 7,945 you might as well watch it on TV as far as I'm concerned. I guess it's the old argument about intimacy and acoustics vs the need to have as many people as want to see you come along to the shows. It must be a killer rush to walk out in front of 80,000 people as well.
A performer of Bruce's caliber has a lot of say in pricing. On the Metros board last year, somebody quite precisely laid out the costs associated with putting on an event at Giants Stadium, about the time AS Roma came to town. Tickets for that match were much lower than Bruce's, and truckloads of money were made. Security and associated manpower costs are not much different for a soccer match or concert, and the additional stage production/lights/sound is not as much as you'd think, especially since it's part of a tour and not a one-off date...and even cheaper since Bruce is playing consecutive nights at The Swamp and stuff doesn't need to be broken down or re-setup. Maybe it's because I've never been a Bruce fan, but I think it's outrageous to have to pay $80 after service charges to sit on the opposite side of a stadium to see a show. And yes, I've seen him live, in small and large venues.
Just for comparison, some current tour prices: Seinfeld: $60, $75 Tori Amos: $33 Coldplay: $27, $32 Bon Jovi: $70 Liza Minnelli: $34, $64, $99 Pretenders: $40, $50 Jonny Mathis: $70 Hall and Oates: $35, $73 Tony Bennett: $38, $63, $83, $123 As for the Boss' current tour, tickets for all the other venues are in the $45-$75 range. I guess demand/cost for the Giants Stadium show just pushes that up a bit? Anyway, if you buy into the idea that Bruce is a Labor troubador who should be playing for pennies to liven up the working man, then I guess Giants stadium prices would be insulting. If you see him as a rock star who happens to write some of his songs about his working class roots, then it doesn't seem so odd.
Footix -- I assume you're adding in the TicketMobster charges? I haven't checked lately, but my understanding was that floor / lowers were $75 and uppers were $55, which is more in line with (a) what his arena show charges, and (b) what others have charged to play the same venue, like Bon Jovi.
I found the answer to my own question. "Regular" ticket prices are $75 and $55, plus TicketBastard charges: http://www.meadowlands.com/EventDetails.asp?EventID=900&facility=Giants+Stadium Now, why Bruce needs to charge $75 & $55 is one question, but at least he's earning the money. Why TM / TB needs to charge $19 in fees on a $75 face value ticket is another issue entirely. Bruce should have a mail-order option for tickets. Scalpers have gone totally nuts over these shows lately, and his fans are older and wealthy enough to pay the premiums. The Atlantic City show next week is getting $600-800 a piece for upper level.
I know this is off topic but I heard that Bruce and Elvis Costello did a version of "London Calling" at the Grammy's. Just out of curiosity, can any one confirm this?
It was very cool along with VanZandt and the No Doubt guy on base. But, boy does Bruce's face get all out of sorts when he sings!
Don't let any of these performers fool you---it's all about money and fame regardless of where they came from.
I was a concert promoter for about 4 years. I will tell you the number one way an artist affects ticket prices: their performance fee. You usually have to charge a boatload for the tickets if the performer demands a huge fee. It is that simple usually.
If I'm doing the math right, Bruce sold tickets for over 300,000 seats to shows at The Swamp this weekend.
Something like that. Three shows sold out, two all but sold out, two with upper-deck back-of-stadium tickets remaining. Assuming 50K tickets per show, it could be over 300K total. In dollar terms, it was over a $20 million haul in one day. Just FYI, lower deck and field tickets were priced as follows: Face $75 Venue fee $2 TM fee $10.35 Shipping ~$3.50 per order Average price was about $88.