While there's been no comment from the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen's manager has addressed outrage over ticket prices for Springsteen's 2023 tour. After tickets went on sale for some dates last week, Ticketmaster price for some seats rose to thousands of dollars because of its "dynamic pricing" system. "In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing," manager Jon Landau said in a statement to the New York Times. "We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others." Ticketmaster says it sold most seats for face values ranging from $59.50 to $399 before service fees.
"Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range," Landau said. "I believe that in today’s environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation." According to Ticketmaster, only 11.2% of tickets were sold under the supply-and-demand "platinum" plan. Variety reports that prices for those tickets hit a high of over $5,000 in some cities, though they have now fallen a little. Artists have the option of pulling out of the platinum system or setting a cap on prices, though either move would leave "more on the table" for scalpers, the Times notes.
Chris Willman at Variety notes that the issue has been "magnified more because of Springsteen’s populist image than it might be if the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney were offering platinum tickets at amounts in the thousands." He offers Landau some advice: "If you haven't been reading the comments, don't start now." This is Springsteen's first major US tour with his band since 2016 and demand for tickets has been driven even higher than usual by rumors that it could be his last, the New York Daily News reports. Tickets for Springsteen's New York dates and the Newark tour finale go on sale Friday. (More Bruce Springsteen stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
