Empty Seats High Ticket Prices Bad Economy
 

I know this is a tired subject but I thought I would weigh in
after hearing that there were thousands of unsold tickets in
New York last night.
With the quality of the performances lately - there is no reason
why these shows shouldn't be sell outs.
So I have to blame it on the absurdly high ticket prices
in a historically bad economy.
Why is it that I can get excellent seats for $80 or less to see
Wilco or Bruce Springsteen - the two other amazing American
bands on the road this summer.
$179 for the best sections is ridiculous in this economy.
I can afford that, but clearly thousands of fans couldn't.

I would love to see the band do a tour in smaller venues.
If an arena tour means 200 dollar tickets, I'll stick with Wilco
this summer.

one of the most xpensive tickets i've ever paid for was last night at MSG..checked ticketmaster day of show and 2nd and 3rd row are just waiting to be bought..Bruce tries to keep them always at the same price but this summer def has alot of crazy prices

The reason why there were thousands of unsold tickets last night is because FM had NO business doing a repeat trip to the market (and at MSG of all places) so soon. (between the poor MSG sales and the AC near-abortion, its obvious why they didn't add the egregiously bad pre-planned Holmdel gig) Its the most expensive venue in the country to play with all the overhead/union bull****, and they lost big $$$.

Of course, Fleetwood Mac needs their $800K g'tee. If they lowered their demands, maybe last night's show could have been a raucous sold out crowd at Radio City Music Hall. The point is- they need their fee. They don't want to play smaller venues- they would rather stay home. They would rather play to 1/3rd-1/2 empty houses (with the upper level completely curtained) than lower themselves to playing 2500-3000 seaters.

I'm surprised there wasn't some discounting going on for MSG like some of the other shows.

I don't necessarily think it's the pricing, cause in a bunch of markets you could have seen the show for probably 30 or 40 bucks with the fees included... I mean if you are stuck for cash and can't afford the top price, 30 or 40 is really reasonable I think....

I'm one of those who could fork out $179 for tickets if I wanted to, but won't, because I have higher priorities right now in this crappy economy. There are MANY other bands that I could see this summer who are not charging these ridiculous prices for tickets. I've never had less respect for FM than I have right now. It just sickens me that fans have to pay for this bands' pampered lifestyle. Where's the gratitude at from this high maintenance, money grabbing machine we call FLEETWOOD MAC? It disgusts me!!

There is none ..that is why even though I could have afforded it I sat out both bay area shows..I did have ambigious feelings about going for awhile although the "greatest hits" abomination did sicken me from the get-go.They have sunk to the depths of the money grubbing Eagles no doubt.

I totally agree.
I went to the box office right at show time just to see what
was available. I didn't go for the incredible single tickets
available because the prices were really offensive to me.
I think I just also have grown to hate arena shows.

Instead I walked down 7th Ave, went to Whole Foods and spent
$25 on some groceries, and called it a night.

I think I was hoping for a little of the magic from the
1979 Tusk tour shows in NY. But I just felt almost gluttonous
paying those prices.

Fleetwood Mac needs to make music their priority again.
Lose the predictable greatest hits setlist and get out of the arenas!
Neko Case, Animal Collective, Wilco, Spoon...
Too much good music happening right now.

I understand your frustration but if this turns out to be the last Fleetwood Mac Tour you just might wish that you had went. It really is a very good live show, sequenced perfectly. And just watching Lindsey's energy and enthusiasum(did I spell that right??) is amazing.

Plus, all this bitching is a little hollow. In all venues, there are tickets for $50 or so $$$ or less. Some have been about $20, which I suggest is affordable to almost all and if you can't afford $20, you shouldn't be going in the first place as you likely are struggling to put food on your table. What people are really bitching about is they want to sit on the front row for $20 :shrug:

As for the tour making money, it seems to me that Live Nation, et al, have lots of people who figure out the state of the economy, the draw of FM, etc., and work the numbers through that economic model. In other words, the price point of profitability of the show is not based on 100% occupancy :shrug:

I agree - I would have just agreed with you, but I did not see your post :cool:

Then why did they play the similarly sized sheds on the SYW tour and some of The Dance :shrug: I suspect they would have on this tour, but it started too early for many of the sheds.

I'm not bitching about sitting in even a DECENT seat for $20 or even $50, I just want it to be reasonably priced, like a lot of other GOOD bands offer. I don't begrudge anyone seeing FM on tour this time around. I'm sure they put on an excellent show. If you want to pay that much for tickets and can afford it, more power to you.

I thought the prices were a bit high, BUT I couldn't pass up seeing them. I went to 1 of the Chicago shows, paid $200.00 for that ticket, then went to Vegas and paid $385.00 for that one. :shocked: The Vegas seat was worth it tho, I would have liked the seat to be front row for that price, but :shrug:, it was great anyways !! In Vegas I was REALLY close to Lindsey, so it was well worth it to me! :lol:

The point is if you want to see them and are short of cash, you can and any argument to the contrary (which is not your argument above) is bogus. You are complaining that you can't sit in a decent (subjective) seat for a decent (subjective) price. I suggest that the subjective nature of that test can never satisfy everyone. But, i agree with you in that I wish seats were less expensive overall and at all levels.

On edit - I have to wonder if anyone here would actually volunteer to work for less than they thought they were worth. How many people have actually gone to their bosses and said "You know - this company makes a product that benefits the world - so lower my salary by half." I suggest none or very few think that way. So, IMO it is ridiculous to fault FM for asking what the market says the price should be :shrug: Thus, I go back to my argument that most people are moaning and groaning because they want to sit in a better seat for less, not because they actually were priced out of going, though some may have been as $20 or so is a lot of $$$ these days for many.

More than the price, the whole scam with the brokers upsets me more. I wish, if we were all at our computers logging into Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. when they went on sale, that we would all have an equal chance to get great seats.

It's maddening that we have to wait days before the concert to see tickets released to the "normal" people when they never should have been held back in the first place. That injustice puts me off more than anything else, especially when I read that Azoff and, by proxy, Fleetwood Mac are benefitting from it.

As for the prices, they don't bother me. I was laughing looking at old interviews when the journalists were questioning Mick about exorbitant $40 tickets. It's just a sign of the times.

Michele

I'm so glad I went. I wasn't even born until after TITN came out, so yeah..I missed their heyday. I wish I could've seen them during their tours for Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, etc....
but hey, what can you do? Nothing. That is why I didn't care that I had to pay outrageous $$$ to see them play their greatest hits. It might have been my first and last chance to see them, who knows if they'll be back on the road again?? They aren't exactly spring chickens anymore.

I don't even think that anyone who's posted in this thread has made THAT complaint. :shrug: It's more about how much higher FM's tickets are relative to other bands touring right now. I think some of us would rather choose to see some other artists, and spend, let's say under $100, and get decent seats.


Funny you should say this. I KNOW a LOT of excellent employees right now who are working for less money and benefits at their jobs because businesses are struggling to survive. It wasn't voluntary though! :laugh:


If they can get it, more power to them. We have every right to question why, given the financial burdens most of us are feeling right now, and the fact that these prices are on the high end of the asking price for concert tickets. It's not as if it's 1977 and the band was touring to promote Rumours, not even close.

And, let's be honest, without Christine McVie, it's really not the full band. I could see them charging those prices if she were on board.

Me too, it's happening all the time right now. And believe it or not, some were voluntary!



I totally agree. I don't see the problem with challenging what the band is asking for tickets considering that most acts of a similar size are charging less.

Huh? Most sheds seat between 7000-8000 and have room for an additional 8000-10000 on the lawn. Its a reduced gross potential from the current scaling that they're using on their arena tour, but FAR more than if they were playing the venues I was referring to in the post you quoted.

I'd question how voluntary that was. Seems to me most and certainly all I know of did it because it was do that "voluntarily" or have no job. But, there could be rare instances, which was not my point. My point was few people would do it voluntarily when they did not have to.

I think many if not most acts their size are charging similar prices for the last few years, to wit from 5/08 :

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdail...cert-business/

So, it seems to me FM is not off at all :shrug:

But, I certainly do not fault anyone for bitching about the high prices. I certainly did. I am just saying that if you are short on cash, buy the $25 or so ticket - that way you can still see them, just 20 or so yards further away :shrug:

I was unclear - I was referring to sheds being less capacity, not that sheds were 2,500 people. My point was and is they do not really need to play the 2,500 seaters at this point - they are selling way beyond that now. Sorry for the confusion.

I understand your point. I don't blame them for not wanting to play 2500 seaters either. The problem is, at the prices they are charging now, they are a weak arena act in many markets. It behooved them to (and they should have) charge less to begin with, as it would have helped with the demand for a no-longer-not-so-inevitable followup shed tour in '10- especially considering FM does not receive a g'tee for their LN shed gigs (rather 100% of the net gate after doc'd expenses).

My original point- in relation to NYC- was that if they absolutely wanted/needed to do a second NYC date this month (it better be because they're not hitting the market again in '09), it would have made much more sense to play a RCMH than a half empty MSG. The show was never going to come close to selling out anyways, for one, and RCMH would have been an inspired booking that would have gotten positive press (from the presumed sellout) and positive buzz from the fans. Maybe it could have been a show they filmed. Plus, even if they sold ~5500, they could have scaled it so that they would have made about as much as they did for the MSG mistake.

Obviously people don't do that sort of thing happily, but sometimes you do what you have to do in view of the times. I was just agreeing with jwd that I knew people who had experienced that too. But the fact is, given that people have supported this band for years and made them millionaires it might be nice if the band showed a little gratitude towards their fans by lowering their prices a little, as other big name acts have. It's just my opinion of course and I'm sure their luxurious lifestyle is more important to them than whether or not I attend a concert, it's just that considering Mick Fleetwood acknowledged how times were hard for people and he hoped people would still come see them (in a UK TV interview last year) I thought that maybe it would be reflected a little in their prices. Obviously I'm still going to see them when they come over but where before I would have gone to multiple shows this time I'm just going to one and I know I'm not the only one.

In my experience, as someone who goes to gigs at least once a week, Fleetwood Mac are one of the most expensive out there at the moment, while other acts who used to charge more have dropped their prices a little of late. That's just my experience though. Also considering that article is from a year ago, I would be interested to know if that's still the case with those artists. I know Clapton was charging at least £20 less for his recent Royal Albert Hall shows here in London last month. Maybe it's a UK thing.

Touché'

Actually, we agree more often than not. And, the empty MSG was an embarrasment.

Last Fleetwood Mac tour? Methinks not..They have not yet even begun to milk the '"farewell tour" cash cow yet.:laugh:

I think they think (and rightly so IMO) that the $25 or $50 seats in, roughly, a third of the arena (in some cases more) is them catering to those who cannot afford the more expensive tickets. In an interview in the past, I believe Stevie said there are always cheap seats for the college kids, etc. So, they are not screwing the fans in that sense. They are only saying that if you want to sit on the floor, etc., it costs more. Yes, I wish those floor seats were cheaper, but that is different than the issue of them screwing their loyal fans with high price concert tickets - which goes back to my point that people are just complaining that they cannot afford a better ticket/seat, not that they cannot attend the concert at all :shrug:

Again, I, too, wish the floor seats were cheaper, but if i could not afford them, I would get a cheaper ticket, be thankful for it, and enjoy the show from a little bit more toward the back.

yeah, I really don't get the reasoning behind going back to MSG after just playing there. It obviously was a stupid business move.

I wonder who makes those decisions. I guess it is the tour manager along with Live Nation.

"Fans" is an unclear word. In Fleetwood Mac's eyes, we are customers. The band may use the term "fan" in its press, but it doesn't mean anything more than "person who buys a ticket or a CD."

Of course, even customers get a gift from a business now & then: restaurants give free meals after ten paid meals, my auto repair shop gives me a "loaner" car to drive around while my car is being worked on, etc., all in the name of give a little short term so that you'll recoup long term (in customer loyalty & return patronage). Fleetwood Mac doesn't offer "rewards" (like the grocery store cards).

Maybe one day Fleetwood Mac will do something like that. Hasn't happened yet. Maybe one day, horses will turn carnivore.

No doubt! That and the preposterousness of calling it a "greatest hits" tour when the lady responsible for 10 of the band's 18 US. top 40 hits is nowhere to be found.

Two topics by various writers within this thread made me realize how the perspectives of ticket buyers can really vary, a lot! Hmm, i don't think being short of cash is even an issue- tickets in many (most?) cases go on plastic... so you can pay as much or as little per month as you want, no? Of course, there's interest fees, what have you- but it's not like most of us part with $174 per ticket or whatever when purchasing them... I think the only way the concert industry is surviving at all is because people use their credit cards, which of course isn't actually coughing up the cash, exactly.
Not that it's wise, but it may be possible that I'm still paying off some of the five SYW shows i saw 5 or 6 years ago, but I got to do what I wanted to do. So, if I'm still paying the price, and I may not be, then atleast I saw the shows I wanted to see. 'Short on cash'-- who isn't? Keep up with your credit card payments, and watch your credit limits get extended to where living within your means no longer means anything! :)
The other opinion, by a writer here I always enjoy, was about the concert being 'perfectly sequenced'- and boy, my perspective really varies from that opinion! I thought the 'Unleashed' concert was horribly sequenced...so damned predictable. I'd like almost everything changed in that regard! Open with 'Gold Dust Woman' or 'Go Your Own Way'... most definitely save 'Dreams' for the closer or encore, it is so dull near the beginning of the set where it has been since almost forever. I swear 'Dreams' stops a concert dead just as it's getting started, build some anticipation for it! 'Unleashed' to me was an enjoyable experience. But it was so predictable due to the sequencing of the songs- I also think 'The Chain' would work much, much better mid-way in the set, it's an exciting track (or used to be) but the band doesn't seemed warmed up enough, or something, playing it so early on, it comes across sterile, for me, now.
Also, this tour was much touted as the 'ultimate hits' tour, and they open with 'Monday Morning'-- not a hit, and actually quite a dull opener, imo.

Totally agreed. Also, we have to keep in mind that Wilco, Animal Collective, Spoon, etc. are all AWESOME bands (whoever listed those probably has an iTunes library identical to my own), but they don't have 30+ years of hits, history and hundreds of thousands of fans. It's just a TOTALLY different world.

Not to say I support the high prices-- all of us would love to pay less for that awesome ticket. It just isn't possible with Fleetwood Mac's high demand. Even if every single show isn't sold out, most of them are and those statistics are what dictate venue selection and pricing.

Dont know much about prices in the US but here in Europe they are the normal prices you pay for a concert like FM. I went to Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Paul Simon and the Eagles and they had all higher prices than FM.
Not that much for some, PS and TT, but the Eagles and CD had really high prices for the best tickets.... Not that it stop people from getting their tickets.. Almost every concert of he artist i have named was sold or almost sold out. For FM the concert in Rotterdam is already sold out ( in 5 ours) and Antwerp is almost sold out, just a few tickets left there.. So ticketsales are going good here....

??? Last I checked, only one show on the '09 NA tour sold out.

Which one?

I guess you were correct in informing me that Stevie put some promoters out of business.Also Luke I posted this in the MacNuggets thread hoping you would see it:

Knowledgeable sources say the city-owned Alerus Center is guaranteeing that Britney Spears makes somewhere in the $750,000 to $850,000 range, though one source said that’s not something unique to this tour.

“We did not pay any more than anybody else,” said Alerus Center executive director Steve Hyman, though he said he couldn’t talk about the arrangement until after tickets go on sale Saturday.

He got the show, he said, because of a professional relationship with tour promoter AEG Live going back 20 years, from when he used to head the Verizon Wireless Center in Moline, Ill.

And, he said, he patched up a contentious relationship between the Alerus Center and the promoter dating back to a disastrous Fleetwood Mac concert in 2003.

According to Hyman, money was not the lynchpin of the deal with AEG Live, but relationship.

The Alerus Center damaged its reputation with the promoter in 2003 after the Fleetwood Mac concert, which sold only 6,174 tickets out of 20,000.

For reasons still murky, the Alerus Center failed to pay AEG Live a six-figure sum, causing the promoter to blackball the events center.

“We paid our dues,” Hyman said. “This is the same gentlemen that didn’t quite get straight on Fleetwood Mac. We straightened that out with Neil Diamond, even though we took a hit on it.”

If Britney does as well here as she did elsewhere, the Alerus Center also will get a rebound in its reputation as an entertainment venue, both with promoters and with its advertisers and suite holders

So what I take from this Grand Forks situation is the Venue agreed to pay the Promoter a certain amount for the show, based on what the Promoter needs to cover the band guarantee. The venue obviously didn't make enough to cover the agreed upon price - and didn't pay the promoter the full amount. The promoter still had to pay the band it's full guarantee for the show - leaving the promoter on the hook for the balance. To get Neil Diamond to their venue, it sounds like they had to pay the promoter more then the usual going price for the show just to get him... that extra money paid was because of the Fleetwood Mac situation.

Yes- although, just to include, the venue co-promoted the show with the city of Grand Forks. Which, of course, is what made it such a cluster... municipalities, generally speaking, are clueless when it comes to concert promoting- specifically the concepts of relationships and ethics.

But they all got fairly close, am I right? Sorry for making that statement without fact-- my point was that the shows have been very successful.

About 5 or 6 shows did well. The tour has NOT been "very successful"- by even the greatest stretch of the imagination. The majority of shows either broke even or lost money.