Ingrida

So grateful to those who are live streaming! Looks like every seat in the house gets a great view of what's happening. I'm blown away by the incredible stage set up on this tour!!

I think a big reason why there hasn't been a lot of news yet about a second leg is because they are waiting to see how Bono manages with the shows that are already scheduled. His accident was so much more serious that we were initially led to believe, and he's not a young man anymore. He looks like he is still in pain whenever his pictures have been taken or on tv. I think it's possible they might take some time off before doing a second leg to give him a chance to rest, and as a result they haven't released news about the second leg yet. It's likely that, had Bono not injured himself at all (or as severely as he did), they would've already released news about the second leg by now. But because of what happened, they had to scramble around and find a Plan B instead to accommodate the new reality of injured Bono. This isn't an intentional slight on the fans or anything, this is all the result of a terrible accident that took the lead singer out of comission in a very big way, which totally altered all of their previous plans. That's what I think is happening here.

From the pics of the stage that were on Ticketmaster it looked like the main stage would be the one by the Red Zone cause it's the bigger one (the stage at the other end looks too small to be a main stage) but I guess all of this is just speculation anyway until there's some kind of official word. The United Center isn't that big inside so it's not like those are bad seats or anything.

The VIP package seats for Chicago United Center were all coming up on the end of the stage closer to the Red Zone side. I wonder why they would've put the VIP package seats behind the stage? Seems kind of odd.

Yay about getting the tickets!! Boooooo about the jury summons. I suppose it evens out.

If only there was some way in existence that the fans could permanently exterminate all scalpers from existence forever, I think the world would be such a happier place. The only thing I can think of is for everyone across the entire world to never buy another scalped ticket ever again. But how do you influence all of the people enough to stop them from buying from them? No idea. It's hopeless.

I would not stay at that Marriott by UIC because you're going to be hearing ambulances all night long with the hospital being right there plus it's just about the plainest most boring hotel with nothing there for the money you're paying. That Embassy Suites that others have mentioned is nice. I've stayed there and had a few business meetings there. Good location, nice rooms, walking distance to good food, and worth the money to stay there in my opinion.

This is how it went for 360 tour. That's how it likely will be again. People who keep their membership active and don't let it expire will be fine. People who forget or ignore the expiration date are the ones who are running into problems this time around and who should write themselves notes to keep an eye on it so they renew in time next time.

The presale offer can't possibly account for every possible family scenario. It would be impossible to cover all the possible family combinations that exist among the world of people who want to attend U2 concerts. Additionally, they were likely hoping to pull in a lot of new fans because they just offered their newest album for free, which ultimately led to allowing only 2 tickets for presale instead of 4 to allow a larger number of subscribers (both old and new) to have a shot at tickets. They have to be welcoming to new fans, because it's not all about us dinosours who have been listening since the 70s. Any band that wants to survive in the world of music today has to continue trying to pull in new fans, not just cater to their oldest fans. I don't have a problem with a fan who just discovered them in September. I'm happy that they share a love for the same band that I enjoy. This presale is not that different from other artists, I know ACDC's fan club only allows 2 tickets in presale, also. I'm sure there are many others who, if they even offer a presale, only offer 2 to each person. And also, It doesn't really matter what they did last time, because times change and circumstances change, things need to be flexible to allow for contingencies. If someone already has at least 2 tickets for any show right now, they should just chill out. There are a lot of people here who still haven't gotten their first tickets yet and you're all saying you need more. How about let everyone who paid for the privilege have the ability to have the same shot at tickets that you did before you start demanding more. It's time to stop the mentality that you're somehow more important than the U2 fan next to you. We're all equal in this because we share a love for the band and their music. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.

Set a note on your calendar or on your phone or something to check back the week that you're supposed to renew on a yearly basis and you'll never forget again. What good is modern technology if you're not using it?

Thia isnt 2003 any more and online sales ain't new... A company the size of Ticketmaster should be prepared for huge sales loke this. If their IT infrastucture is from this century, they should be able yo easy scale their operations to accomadate the extra load. 100% agreed!! But, Ticketmaster won't pay for the upgrade. I think that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt how messed up their priorities are, business wise.

I agree that something needs to change but I'm totally at a loss for what can be done. In talking about the politicians, they have other priorities that have larger groups of lobbyists in their ear on a daily basis, so something like the price of concert tickets and/or the criminality of Ticketmaster and their shady as hell business practices doesn't rate high on their radar. And it likely never will. Even if big name musicians went in to testify in front of congress, I don't think politicos see it as an important issue, given how so many other issues take priority. Like it or not, concerts are a luxury and not a necessity and that's why it's so hard to make the people in power take it seriously. I mean truly there's nothing we can do outside of just not paying those prices and not going to shows. But then we miss out on the shows, which is completely unfair. Unless every member of the public refuses to buy scalper tickets for the remainder of eternity, they will stay in business. But how do you reach the masses impactfully enough to get them to quit buying those tickets on the secondary market? I truly don't know and it makes me really sad cause going to concerts is one of my favorite hobbies.

I don't know where people are getting the idea of acoustic one night and electric the next. It must be a rumor started by one person with no basis in any kind of known fact nor even a hint that it would be the case. So I think people need to quit worrying so much about that. I doubt that they would set up this way and I've found no evidence to think it would be set up like this. In any case, I don't think it makes any difference because they will release a concert DVD after the tour ends like they always do and I'm sure it will include everything that is different since they film more than one night every time and combine it all together.

This is how it always goes for any Ticketmaster presale, general on sale, sales of any kind. Because Ticketmaster servers cannot manage the overwhelming response for big name acts like U2. This literally happens every time. It's very annoying and totally lame but there isn't anything we can do about it, except keep trying to get through, unfortunately.

I used to have a yahoo email on here years ago and the emails weren't getting through from U2.com half the time. I switched to a gmail account and have not missed a message since then. My recommendation to anyone using yahoo email is to get a gmail address because I know from personal experience that Yahoo email has ongoing issues with delivering email from here for some reason.

At the end of the day, U2 and U2.com have no control over the Ticketmaster website and its many shortcomings and failures. They don't own them, they don't maintain their system servers and they have no control over upgrading the system since it's obviously a pile of shit. Unfortunately since Ticketmaster is the only ticket seller in town, they have U2 and every other artist, sports team, and live event by the balls and they know it. Ticketmaster doesn't care how long people have been fans of any event for whom they sell tickets. They don't care how long a person has been in a fan club or how many thousands of dollars they have spent over the years in support of that act. All Ticketmaster cares about is taking money from the people who want to see those events and that's it. 100% of the blame for this presale fiasco and the Vertigo disaster plus thousands of other presales for many other bands and sports teams, belongs on the head of Ticketmaster. 100%. They are the ones who deserve the name calling and threats and civil action. U2 and U2.com have tried over the years to adjust their policies to get as many tickets on the hands of their fans as they can. They went so far as to have Adam's own brother take charge of the fan club to try to help make sure the fans are taken care of. The point is that they have tried and it's reflected in their membership gifts every year to paid subscribers and it's reflected in the awesomeness of the mods they have here on Zootopia who, despite having been abused and tortured by so many fair weather fans these pay few days like they have during every presale, they still maintain their composure and genuinely try to help to the max of the power which they have been given. But their hands are tied also because they are just as much at the mercy of Ticketmaster as we are. They really, really try so hard to help but they still get kicked down and it's just not right. Anyway, as much as I love going to see the band live, I have dreaded presale time every time because it always brings out the worst in people here. The sense of entitlement people have is shocking to me. I'm still sitting here kvelling because my #1 band just literally handed me a free album of theirs on iTunes and here's all these others who claim to be fans, they are the first ones to blame the band at presale time cause they can't get what they want. It's heartbreaking to me but maybe I hold U2 fans to a higher standard than I should. I don't know. I got royally screwed by Ticketmaster during the Vertigo presale and this time it took over an hour for me to get my tickets. But I don't fault U2 for that nor U2.com because they're not the ones running the show over there at Ticketmaster. I have hated Ticketmaster since before Vertigo for many years and I will continue to do so until and unless they upgrade their shitty system. It's 2014 and they have been charging the most exorbitant ticket fees for decades but yet they can't spring for an upgrade to their shitty system. Whatever. They suck. Point is, it's on Ticketmaster that this presale went bad.

Don't just lay down and give up. If that happened to me I'd be calling them until I got through to a live person while also sending emails to them every hour on the hour asking them what happened.

What exactly did the email say was the reason for cancelling? Was it a problem with your credit card possibly?

It has always been $50 for a new membership and $40 to resubscribe for as long as I can remember. If you renew anytime before your prior membership expires it will always be $40. But if you renew any time after your previous membership expired already (meaning any date past the date that is your expiration date), it will be treated as a new membership because you were no longer an active member since it was already expired before you resubbed. The difference is in your current member status when resubbing. There are a lot of people who don't come back to the site when there's no tour happening and don't pay attention to when their membership expires. But the easiest way around that is to put it on your calendar yearly for a few days prior to expiration to remind yourself when to come back and keep it active to avoid these problems. I've been doing that since U2.com started and never had a lapse in membership because I had the note in my calendar each year to come back and renew. It's such a simple idea that I'm really surprised no one else does this.

Don't be upset. You saw the shenanigans that occurred today due to Ticketmaster overload with 4 presales for big ticket bands going on at the same time (idiots!). I have a strong suspicion that those who are in the second group will have a lot fewer problems and will have a much easier time getting through the buying process. In other words, you're getting the better deal than the first group cause you're not going to have all the problems we did today. You should be really happy about that!!

Everyone who had problems this morning should go and try again right now. The other presales for Foo Fighters and One Direction are long over so you should try again and see if you can get through this time.

This. It's this, nothing to do with U2. It happens for every presale and many general public sales for the majority of artists who go on tour. Everyone who has more than 10 fans will have this problem when their tix go on sale. If you are going to blame anyone blame Ticketmaster for being so utterly and completely incompetent every single bloody time there's any kind of ticket sale. They have sucked since the dawn of time and they keep getting worse. Nothing we can do because they don't give a shit about us paying them. They also don't give a shit that fans are blaming the bands for this bullcrap, in fact they're sitting in their plush offices twiddling their mustaches and laughing at the fact that the fans are blaming the band's cause they know they're off the hook then. Don't buy into their BS and start blaming the band cause the fan club has really made an effort here, I feel, and they're not getting any credit for how much they have tried to make things better. But as the old saying goes, you can't polish a turd and Ticketmaster is just about the biggest turd in existence.

It's not U2's fault, it's Ticketmaster. They are literally the devil. I'm not even kidding. This happens every time tickets go on presale, there's always an issue with their servers because, despite charging outrageous fees over and above the ticket price, they still can't manage to pay to upgrade their paltry servers that have never managed to handle the customer demand for a high volume group like U2, or frankly even a medium volume group. But unfortunately they're the only ticket provider in town, so to speak (at least in the US). So they get their way every time, which I think is disgusting. If you're going to get mad at anyone about this, get mad at Ticketmaster because every time, time and time again, they are the reason why everyone gets screwed out of their tickets. Every. Damn. Time.

What kind of swag did you get from the Red Zone in previous tours, anyone? I'm curious to know what kind of stuff they give out.

That's everyone's strategy so I'd say you're in the same boat as everyone else.