Zoonation76

With all due respect, you people need to stop being so naive. I mean that respectfully. U2 is a money making machine that is, and has been, hands on in everything they do. The chances they are not fully aware of how this was set up is zero. Sorry. This exercise is about wringing every last cent out of every last ticket possible. I do agree the treatment the fan club has received is ridiculous. I will never pay another dollar to be a member of this site. #me(U2)

Odds that second shows will bear decent GA fruit for those of us who bought membies? Not holding my breath, but hopefully they take care of us.

they are for sure not making it up. they are squeezing every last cent out of the tickets that they can.

Likely sold out because TM not involved.

Wolf Alice is current favourite band! You’ve seen them 5 times?! Awesome. Do they open with Heavenward? Also my current favourite song! wish they’d come here. Only bands I travel for are U2 (maybe not this time for the first time since 1992) and Radiohead

None will be cancelled. They will do the same thing that Arcade Fire had to do (under Live Nation). Drastically reduce the prices of tickets as the shows approach. Arcade Fire shows were still half empty, but you could get the tickets initially reserved in the "platinum package" - at $450 a piece - for $125 5 days before the show. U2 can likely drum up enough demand on the existing shows that the drop won't be that drastic, but given this roll out, I doubt many second shows get added. We may see a couple new cities (Toronto, Vancouver, etc) with traditional strong demand, but second shows in existing cities outside of NYC and CHI seem unlikely given this colossal fuck up.

i have some swamp land to sell you if you think that general fans navigated the code fiasco just for the privilege to buy general onsale tickets faster than the scalpers did. not a chance. When was the last time a general arena tour by U2 did not announce multiple additional dates the day the general onsale started? Hell, they barely even announced many shows to start with. They screwed this up royally. on every level. And, it is going to cost them a few more shows. Watch. Can't wait for the egg on the face moment where they have to, gulp, let casual fans just sign onto ticketmaster and, you know, try and buy tickets to a concert! Go have a look through the secondary market sites and tell me that scalping was prevented on any level. Although, my own theory is that Osery/TM/Live Nation are in bed with those entities anyway. They bought and paid for thousands and thousands of tickets before any fan even knew what the dates would be.

This has to be the biggest fuck up of all time by a band and their management. i doubt they skate this press...

correct.

they may have finally got too greedy. none of the shows are even close to selling out (except for Montreal and NYC). the absurd hoops to jump through (which did not have any effect at all (see ebay/stubhub/etc) combined with a price point that is just out of touch means none of these shows have sold out. how do you add more, when no one is willing to pay 3$400 to sit in the second deck for the first night? they just keep doing really stupid things. it is like they are magnets for bad press. but they do it to themselves.

oh, that is right my friend, that is right.

Not a compelling argument, if your premise is that the fan’s interest is informing the decisions being made on how pre-general sale tickets are being allocated.

It’s not the “experience” group that is selling before you have acces in the “innocence” group. Those tickets were sold to secondary sites before any ticket was made available to the public. I’d bet my mortgage on it.

Agreed. Most of us are travelling to go to the show anyway and should be relatively flexible given the dates are 7 months+ away. The key is to be patient and wait for the added shows. given all the uproar, maybe they throw the diehard fans a bone and open up even half as many GA's as they did for Citi I want red zone tickets (old, don't like to wait in lines) and those seem way harder to get this time around. we'll see. God himself couldn't convince me that this whole thing wasn't completely deliberate though. Like I said, leveraging diehards is the easiest way to hedge your bets out fo the gate when booking a new tour. And that is exactly what they did. Charged us to do it too. I suspect the tickets get allocated like this after tour announced: 1. announce about 50% of the shows you plan on doing if you have the demand pegged right. 2. Immediately make deal with secondary markets. Spread the risk. Let them try and gauge demand and price the tickets to maximize profit. Give them a bunch of awesome seats though. They deserve it! 3. Set aside the best seats for the rich people who can't be bothered and will pay $650 for a crap buffet and cheap wine to go along with their souvenir lanyard. Most won't show up for it anyway. The "Platinum Package"! lol 4. Stir up the diehard fan base. Con them (that's right, I said "con") into thinking that they will have early access to good tickets if they shell out another $50 for the fan club. 5. Do the diehard pre-sale first. Only make available the tickets that occupy the promoter's sweet spot (weak tickets at maximum prices). These are your second deckers on the side in the 10th row + or your back of the arena lower deckers for $325 that only a rich person or an idiot would buy. Many diehards will bite though. Exploit the fuck out of that. 6. have a second presale with your corporate bed buddies. Bought and paid for. Second hedge here. Give them (Citi) lots of tickets as these are more casual fans. 4 tickets for these people instead of the 2 for the diehards. Way better access to cheap floor tickets too. These people aren't paying $325 for crap tickets. Are you kidding me? Sell, sell, sell! 7. General sale. Time to start really turning a profit. Release a small amount of tickets that haven't already been addressed in points 1-6. Well, except for point 4. release those. they are overpriced shitty tickets anyway. some people will buy them! Make it difficult enough to get good tickets that it stirs up demand and people start talking. Hopefully funnel people to the platinum roast beef dinner and barely drinkable wine tickets. 8. Add shows. people are talking. Repeat steps 1 -7 for those. Maybe throw the diehards a bone on the added shows, but maybe not if demand is through the roof. they will find a way to get to the show anyway... 9. As show draws closer both the promoter and the secondary market start dropping prices to close the delta. Bigger risk here for the secondary market. Osery and co. already made their money on that block of tickets before one was sold to the public. And, Osery and Co only really have to get rid of the seat/roast chicken/all-the-StellaArtois-you-can-drink tickets. Those will be dropped in price right up until showtime. (see: Arcade Fire) Anyway, this is business. I get it. But don't piss on our leg and tell us it is raining. It is really distasteful to pretend you care about the fans, when all you really care about is drinking that '86 Chateau Petrus next summer on whatever Yacht you and Bono stumble onto hungover (does Bono even get hungover?) after partying the night away in his Castle in Eze. Just sayin...

Bono's an investor in shopping malls in tinbuktu financed with money he is sheltering from tax (his choice) in Malta, and you think he doesn't know that his touring company is rigging the system to maximize profit? I've got some swamp land to sell ya...